WASHINGTON – The U.S. Transportation Department announced Monday that it will toughen bus safety regulations by requiring seat belts, recording devices and other features, weeks after an investigation of a fatal Texas crash resulted in a scathing review of safety rules.

Safety advocates, legislators and the bus industry praised the Motorcoach Safety Action Plan as a good first step to address the largely unregulated field.

"Any progress that can made toward protecting passengers in all scenarios in motorcoaches will be an improvement over what we have right now," said Deborah Hersman, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Some critics said the plan provided little in the way of specifics and substantive deadlines and that more-precise legislation, stalled in Congress, is still needed to toughen rules.

"We are encouraged by what the department is doing, but this is a shadow of what is in the legislation," said Henry Jasny, general counsel for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.

Two years ago, Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, introduced a bipartisan bus safety bill that would require – under strict timelines – seat belts, stronger roofs and safety windows, stronger driver training and standards, and more regulatory oversight of the bus industry. But it has yet to make it out of a Senate committee.

The Transportation Department's plan explores regulations in a number of areas but proposes rules on three major items: requiring recording devices to monitor drivers' duty hours and manage fatigue, prohibiting drivers from texting and limiting their use of cell phones and other devices, and requiring the installation of seat belts.

But the report offers few details about what will be ordered. The plan says strengthening bus roofs is a priority, but a decision has yet to be made on how to proceed. It promises seat belt regulations by the end of 2011, but it does not say what kind of belts will be used.

"Until we see those proposed rules, it is hard to know what they are providing," said Jasny, with Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.

Two headline-grabbing bus crashes prompted Congress to tackle bus safety in recent years.

In 2007, a bus carrying an Ohio college baseball team crashed in Atlanta and killed seven people.

Last year, a crash near Sherman that killed 17 people and injured 40, galvanized the Texas congressional support for bus safety legislation.

The state had already seen two other deadly bus crashes since 2005.

"Many of the safety recommendations put forth by DOT are included in our bus safety legislation introduced earlier this year," Hutchison said. "The administration's support for crucial bus safety improvements will help build momentum as I continue the fight to move bus safety legislation through Congress."

Peter Pantuso, president of the American Bus Association, said the safety plan would render any kind of legislation moot.

Regulations have remained largely untouched – despite the NTSB recommending seat belts, starting in 1968 – in part because the industry is relatively safe.

Nearly 750 million people ride commercial buses each year. There are 20 to 30 people killed each year in commercial bus accidents compared to the more than 40,000 who die in car crashes.

"Bus travel is currently the safest form of transportation that exists," Pantuso said.