Protest Against Use Of Wooden-Sided Buses

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30809, 22 July 1965, Page 21

Protest Against Use Of Wooden-Sided Buses

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 21. The loss of 19 lives through accidents to wooden-sided passenger buses in New Zealand since 1963 should force the Minister of I ransport to take action to remove this “senseless risk to human lives" of the roads, the secretary of the Drivers’ Federation (Mr W. J. Welsh) said today.

In spite of a committee of inquiry’s finding into the Bryndenvyn hill, North Auckland bus disaster on February 7, 1963, when 14 persons were killed, the Minister had done nothing, he said. Unless he now amended regulations to stop woodensided buses from operating, the federation “would be forced to consider other methods’’ to bring this about, said Mr Welsh.

Mr Welsh said the federation had made representations against wooden-sided buses for a number of years. “Now the Rata bus tragedy, with the loss of five lives, illustrates the need for immediate action,” he said. “Contract vehicles must be fitted with metal bodies. “It is a recognised fact that vehicles having metal-framed bodies sheathed with metal are capable of withstanding considerable impact damage, and are likely to remain reasonably intact even after accidents similar to the one at Rata,” he said.

A Transport Department official said today the re-cently-amended regulations specified that every passengerservice vehicle first used or under construction after April 1, 1966, must have metal sides. He said the regulation would not apply to “any pas-senger-service vehicle first used or under construction before April 1, 1966, or on order before the commencement of this regulation, so long as the vehicle is maintained to the satisfaction of the vehicle inspector.”