IPPN

Published: 26 June 2009

GRAVE concerns have been raised about school bus safety after gardai allowed a bus filled with children, which had a "dangerous" defect, to continue its journey.

Viewers of an RTE show on traffic gardai saw officers come across a bus driving on a motorway with a damaged tyre, one broken seatbelt and several children standing unbelted.

The tyre was shown to be worn at the side, with a protruding wire that one of the gardai observed could "take the hand off" a child. However, despite the obvious concerns, the driver of the bus was allowed to continue the journey.

The disturbing discovery was made on a bus seen randomly stopped on the M4 on Traffic Blues, a programme following officers on road duties.

The driver was warned that his vehicle would be impounded if he did not change the tyre, but no other action was taken against him on screen.

tragedy

The incident occurred despite increased inspections of buses after the Navan crash tragedy in which five schoolgirls were killed.

Fine Gael's spokesman on school transport, Frank Feighan TD, said the number of inspections needed to quadruple. However, he praised the gardai for taking the initiative in carrying out checks.

"I would be concerned that after so much public awareness being raised, there are still some children who don't wear seatbelts," Mr Feighan said.

"The fact that one of the belts was out of order is unsatisfactory and the state of the tyre is very, very worrying. I know there are a lot of inspections going on, but it's clearly not enough and clearly the message isn't getting through. Standards cannot be allowed to slip."

Asked about letting the bus driver continue, Mr Feighan said: "The garda made his decision and it's hard to see how bad the tyre was."

A Garda Press Office spokesman said: "If it was a borderline case, the garda was right to use his discretion as they do on a daily basis. But if it was of such a defect that it would cause immediate serious danger, it would have been impounded there and then or the driver would have been given an opportunity to change the tyre."

Supervisors

The National Parents Council (Primary) CEO Aine Lynch said she had not seen the programme, but was calling for supervisors to be present on buses to ensure children remained seated and belted.

Meanwhile, an investigation has begun into the cause of a blaze on board a bus on the M50 yesterday from which 63 children miraculously escaped.