SCHOOL BUS CRASHES

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33654, 2 October 1974, Page 1

SCHOOL BUS CRASHES

(N.Z. Press Association) DUNEDIN, Oct. 1. Thirty - four schoolchildren escaped serious injury when their bus plunged over an Bft bank into Otago Harbour about 8.15 a.m. today. Seven schoolchildren, and the badly shaken bus driver, were taken to hospital by three ambulances, but only one was admitted.

She is Karen Cloughley, aged 14, of Jane Street, Macandrew Bay, who is being held for observation. Her condition is reported as satisfactory.

The accident happened about one mile south of the Vauxhall Yacht Club on Portobello Road after the nearly-new bus apparently had driven into a small drain on the left of the road. It swerved out of the drain, and crashed over th„ bank into the harbour, falling on to its side. The police said that fortunately the tide was low; at high i'de the bus would

have been in 6 feet of water. One of the two senior pupils on the bus, Roslyn Cloughley, aged 18, said the bus tipped over fairly slowly. Some of the girls on bbard screamed, but soon quietened down. The other senior pupil, Mark Ryan, aged 17, kicked out a skylight in the roof of the rear of the bus and then got out to help the rest of the pupils from the vehicle. Roslyn Cloughley said that most of the pupils were third and fourth formers. The boys helped get Mr Coulter out of the bus. At no stage did anyone panic, she said. * Mr Coulter said the accident had ended bus driving for him. He has been driving buses since 1935 when he joined the Dunedin City Council’s transport department. He retired from the council last year.