Kennett Rejects Pleas To Speed Bus Safety Law
The Age
Monday September 20, 1993
The State Government yesterday rejected calls for the immediate installation of seat belts in school buses, despite the second bus crash this week involving secondary school students.
The Premier, Mr Kennett, said that despite the accidents _ near Coober Pedy on Saturday and at Myrtleford yesterday _ the Government did not plan to introduce seat belts in buses until next July. He said they would be phased in gradually and would be installed on large interstate buses first.
He rejected calls to start work immediately on school buses. He said the floors of many buses were not strong enough to hold seat belts.
``To put belts into the majority of buses today would be increasing the danger to children," he said. ``If they were involved in an accident ... the seat would become a very dangerous item within the bus itself.
Installing seat belts would involve the withdrawal of, ``every bus that currently services school children," he said.
Mr Kennett's comments followed emotional scenes at Essendon Airport yesterday as the 31 students from Mount Lilydale College who escaped serious injury in the Coober Pedy crash were reunited with parents and relatives.
The students, the school principal and four teachers were flown from Coober Pedy in four charter aircraft. A 16-year-old girl was killed in the crash. Eight students remain in the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
In the Myrtleford accident, just 36 hours after the Coober Pedy crash, 12 Queensland students were injured. Wet weather and a dangerous stretch of road are believed to be responsible for the crash.
None of the students were seriously hurt with injuries confined mainly to cuts and bruising. One student broke a collar bone and another received facial injuries.
The bus carried 34 students aged between 13 and 17 and four teachers from the Capella and Moranbah high schools in central Queensland who were on their way to Mount Hotham for a skiing holiday.
Twelve students were taken to the Myrtleford Hospital for treatment.
Three were later transfered to Wangaratta Hospital.
The accident happened about 4.20am as the bus was travelling along Mudgegonga Road, about two kilometres east of Myrtleford.
The same stretch of road claimed the life of a truck driver three years ago in similar circumstances. A motorist was lucky to escape with only minor injuries when he crashed after losing control on the same section of road about 18 months ago.
Yesterday, a spokesman for the Transport Minister, Mr Brown, said a national meeting of transport ministers had set 1 July as the date for the installation of seat belts on interstate coaches, and Victoria was unlikely to move ahead of the national agreement.
He said the buses involved in both the Coober Pedy and Myrtleford crashes would be covered by the agreement.
He said he did not foresee the need for legislation to compel bus companies to provide seat belts. The threat of litigation would probably force them to install seat belts anyway.
However, Labor's education spokesman, Mr Mal Sandon, said that the Government was responsible for the safety of students, and should increase the number of buses to reduce the number of standing passengers. He said that by closing schools, the Government had forced thousands more children to travel by bus.
``The Government must accept responsibility to ensure that students, when they're travelling to school, can travel safely," he said.
Mr Sandon called on the Government to address a number of bus safety problems, including the structural strength of buses, horizontal metal bars, and the lack of seat belts, and added, ``seat belts shouldn't be an optional extra".
The bus safety spokesman for the Victorian Council of School Organisations, Mr Leon Hain, said that the working party chaired by the Liberal MLC, Mr Andrew Brideson, had endorsed 19 safety recommendations made by a previous bus-safety inquiry made under the Kirner Government. The Brideson report is under consideration by the Education Minister, Mr Don Hayward, and is soon to be considered by Cabinet.
Mr Hain said he had been personally reassured by Mr Brideson that all 19 recommendations were submitted in the report, including: side reinforcement of buses, seat belts required, and no standing passengers allowed in buses travelling at more than 80 kilometres per hour, removal or padding of horizontal railings, securing of wheelchairs, compulsory two-way radios, provision of more than one emergency exit, annual checking of all buses by VicRoads, audible reversing signals, mounted lights on the front and rear of rural buses, bus stop safety improvements.
SAFETY SUGGESTIONS Lap sash belts on buses that travel more 80kmh.
A ban on standing in buses that travel more than 80kmh.
More than one emergency exit on a bus.
Buses should be checked annually.
No more than three children under the age of 12 should occupy a seat normally used by two adults.
Horizontal railings should be padded or removed.
Radio communication to be installed on all buses.
© 1993 The Age
