SCHOOL BUS CRASH

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30063, 22 February 1963, Page 12

SCHOOL BUS CRASH

Radio Reports Criticised (N.Z. Press Association) DUNEDIN, February 21. The Oamaru South School’s Home and School Association is to send a letter of protest to the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation over its handling of news flashes on the recent bus accident at Dunedin.

The bus, carrying pupils of the school to Dunedin to see the Queen, crashed into a gate at the Dunedin Botanic Gardens, injuring a number of the children.

At a meeting of the association it was said the brief news reports caused parents in Oamaru to panic because the information given was not sufficient to reassure them. The association is to write a letter of commendation to the bus driver, Mr Cecil Parker, for averting a tragedy and also to other people who had helped the injured children.

One nine-year-old, Hilary Mair, who was treated for facial abrasions at the Dunedin Public Hospital and later discharged, has been found to have a broken upper arm bone. The two children who were admitted to the hospital, one with concussion and the other with a suspected broken pelvis, have now returned to their homes. The second child’s pelvis was not broken.