Student Association Mass Transit Board members claim the four Huskie Bus Line accidents within the past month are not a major concern.

Huskie Line General Manager Charles Battista, an unofficial board member, said the Huskie Bus Line has always considered safety as an important issue. Adding, it is the “safest system in American Transit’s 18 or 19 companies.”

There are about 3.18 accidents per 100,000 miles, said SAMTB Adviser Dave Pack. Huskie buses travel 375,000 miles and average about 10 accidents per year.

Pack said students do not have any major concerns with the Huskie Bus Line. “If students saw it as an issue I’d probably hear my phone ringing.”

The accidents would gain more attention from mass transit board members, if they “could see a trend with the four accidents,” Battista said.

Pack said if there “tends to be any trends we’ll address it at that time.”

The first Huskie Bus Line accident was on Jan. 25 when NIU student David Herda was hit by a bus on Greenbrier Road. That day, DeKalb received about eight inches of snow.

A north-bound car on Annie Glidden Road hit a Huskie bus Feb. 6 at Stadium Drive. The third accident occurred Feb. 9 when a Route 4 bus turned right from Lucinda Avenue on to Normal Road and hit a Greyhound charter bus.

Finally, on Feb. 15 a Huskie bus hit a pizza delivery van parked outside of Gilbert Hall. Of these accidents one was not preventable, no claims were made on two and Herda was treated and released, Battista said.

“These accidents are very minor,” he said. “We tell drivers a bus out of control is a deadly situation.”