BUS DRIVERS’ SKILL

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21894, 22 September 1936, Page 10

BUS DRIVERS’ SKILL

CORONER COMMENTS ON LACK OF TEST BOY’S DEATH INVESTIGATED U>nEBS ASSOCIATION TBLEGHAM.) AUCKLAND. September 21. Criticism of the lack of an exacting test to ensure that bus drivers handle their vehicles with the utmost skill and expediency in cases of emergency was voiced by Mr Wyvern Wilson, S.M., coroner, at an inquest into the death of Brian Kennedy, aged five, the son of J. Kennedy, of Point Chevalier, who suffered fatal injuries when he was knocked down by a motor-bus in Point Chevalier road on August 8. The coroner said one expected children under six to be heedless and careless, and apparently, the boy ran out heedlessly in front of the bus, The bus-driver was unable to help him at all, as he was unable to tell what distances he required at certain speeds to stop his bus. He could only surmise. "I think there should be a test for knowledge of drivers in handling their vehicles,” the coroner said. “Public safety on the roads and in the buses themselves depends on the knowledge and skill of bus drivers in an emergency.” A verdict was returned that the boy died shock and internal injuries, as the result of being accidentally knocked down by a bus.