Private-hire school buses are exempt from seatbelts deadline

Safety regulations: An Order that requires school buses funded by the Department of Education to be fitted with seatbelts by December this year will not apply to privately hired buses such as the one involved in yesterday's crash.

It has also emerged that specifications for fitting the belts in school buses have not yet been issued by the Department of Transport.

The Government announced last July that it would spend €36.5 million to ensure that each of the estimated 138,000 students who use the school transport system funded by the department will have their own seat and seatbelts by December 2006.

The announcement came following the death of five teenage girls in a school bus crash in Navan.

The bus had no seatbelts and was operating the so-called "two-for-three" seating arrangement under which three children share two adult seats.

School bus operators funded by the Department of Education have been told that vehicles must be retro-fitted with belts by December of this year.

However, specifications for the retro-fitting of belts to the school bus fleet have not yet been issued.

Consequently, some bus owners who already retro-fitted belts may have to remove them.

And the seatbelt legislation will not apply to buses such as the one involved in yesterday's Clara crash because it was hired privately by parents to take their children to school.

Thousands of children are brought to school in Ireland every day by privately hired operators.

Parents opt to hire buses if a child does not qualify for a place on an official Department of Transport bus.

Qualification for the department scheme requires that a child attends a school within their catchment area and that they live outside walking distance of the school.

Mike Goodliss, general manager of the Private Association of Motor Bus Owners (PAMBO), said there are many different types of buses in the official school bus fleet.

If the department wanted them to be retro-fitted with belts, they must release specifications.

"Following the Navan bus crash many bus owners decided to put seat belts in their vehicles but they may have to remove them because they may not meet the specifications," he said.

"All of this fitting will have to be done over the holidays when the buses are not in use - yet we do not even have the specifications yet."

Mr Goodliss said that "this issue has been very badly handled."

A spokesman for the Department of Transport said that they expected to be advised about the specifications for retro-fitting seat belts by safety experts within the next couple of weeks.

On the issue of seatbelts in privately hired buses, he said that the Minister for Transport, Martin Cullen, was of the view that all buses used by young people should be fitted with seatbelts.

"He hopes that a deal will be reached with the remainder of private bus operators carrying young people in the new year," he said.

Meanwhile, an EU directive that comes into effect on May 9th requires that seatbelts must be worn in all buses already fitted with seatbelts.

This applies to school buses and official bus operators have also been informed that only one child can use each belt.

From October all new buses coming into the Department of Education-funded system must be fitted with belts.

All public service vehicles are required to pass a Department of the Environment roadworthiness test on an annual basis.

It is understood that the 17-year-old bus involved in yesterday's crash had passed this test in the last couple of months.