School bus fire raises questions over safety test

Questions were today raised over the quality of testing carried out on school buses, just hours after one burst into flames in…

Questions were today raised over the quality of testing carried out on school buses, just hours after one burst into flames in Co Meath.

We have to try and ensure this doesn't happen again
Meath TD and Minister for Communications Mr Noel Dempsey

More than 30 teenagers escaped injury following a blaze on board the Bus Eireann vehicle near Athboy at 8.35am.

The bus was travelling on the N51 Athboy road, three miles from the village of Delvin, when a driver smelled smoke and evacuated the vehicle.

Within minutes it erupted in flames. Raising concerns that the bus was examined as recently as March 29th, Meath TD and Minister for Communications Mr Noel Dempsey today called for the company to review its system of testing and servicing school buses.

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"We have to try and ensure this doesn't happen again," said Mr Dempsey.

"My information in a lot of cases the buses have been examined and the bus we are talking about here had been looked at on March 29th. Quite clearly there is something wrong with a system of checking that would clear a bus.

"This bus went on fire, but for the alertness of the driver and the calmness which it was dealt with it could have been very, very tragic. Bus Eireann need to take a very serious look at the tests and procedures they are operating."

It is claimed the bus — a 1989-registered vehicle — broke down yesterday while on the same run and once checked was returned to the driver for the afternoon school run.

Mr Dempsey said he believed the bus involved in last year's fatal crash in Kentstown, Co Meath, had also been checked just a few months earlier. Five schoolgirls were killed when the vehicle ended up on its side on a country road.

At the beginning of April, 15-year-old Michael White was killed and 34 others were injured when the back axle came off a school bus on a bog road in Co Offaly. And less than three weeks ago, six teenagers were treated for injuries following a road crash involving their school bus in Roscommon.

Mr Dempsey told RTE radio that until recently a lot of the busses carrying children to school were older than those used in the private sector.

"It is a fair assessment that people would be worried about buses of that age, but from my experience the age of a bus is not a factor, it's how well kept it is, how maintained it is, how well tests are done," he added.

"My concern is in a lot of cases buses have been tested within a particular period of time so quite clearly the test system that's in place is not sufficient to detect something like this.

"There needs to be a fundamental look at the type of tests that are being carried out and the regularity of those particular tests. There just seems to be a problem."