A bus which served junior infants at a Killarney school was withdrawn yesterday. Its owner was sued successfully for an injury to a child incurred during horseplay on the bus.
While it was not compulsory to provide seat belts to restrain children on buses, the judge at the Circuit Court in Killarney on Friday found there was negligence on the part of the bus owner for not securing the four-year-old child with a seat belt.
The decision is being appealed to the High Court.
If upheld, it will have repercussions for the owners of school buses, who will have to provide seat belts and see that children are secured or perhaps be left without insurance, according to legal sources.
The parents, many of whom do not have cars, were faced yesterday with finding alternative arrangements for collecting their children from Holy Cross primary school to bring them to houses up to two miles away.
The privately-organised 1 p.m. bus service had been operating for many years and it would be difficult to find another bus to take over, they said.
Mr Jimmy O' Callaghan, the owner of the bus company, said it was the first time in 33 years of school runs he had been sued.
The company's insurance had already gone up over 60 per cent in the last two years, without any law suits, he said.
"We don't want to withdraw the bus. But we have no choice in order to protect ourselves. We had been following procedures," Mr Philip O'Callaghan, manager of the bus company, said.
The four-year-old boy received a laceration of one inch in his forehead after being pushed by another child at the back of the bus in December 2000, three months after starting school.
Judge Seán O'Leary awarded €6,000 plus costs to the boy, now aged six.
Parents outside Holy Cross school were clearly upset yesterday at the withdrawal of the service. More than 15 children will be affected, they said.
Ms Elaine Buckley, Pinewood, has two children at the school. She was trying to organise phone numbers of other parents to see if they could all get together to provide taxis.
She loved the school, her son loved the bus and the drivers. She might now have to consider changing school, she said. "I went to school here myself. It is a very good school."
Ms Mary Yekini, from Nigeria has two four-year-old children availing of the service. A number of asylum-seeker families rely on the service.
"We are upset. We don't have a car," she said.
Other asylum-seekers living in the Park Road area had children in the school, she said.
The guidelines for buses under the school transport scheme laid down by the Department of Education do not require seat belts, a spokesman said yesterday.
It was extremely rare for school bus operators to be sued, he said.
Mr Tom O'Halloran, solicitor for Mr O'Callaghan, confirmed an appeal was being taken. He expected it to be heard at the High Court on circuit in Tralee in early December.