Radio-phone lifesaver?

Press, 9 July 1983, Page 1

Radio-phone lifesaver?

The radio-telephones installed in Christchurch Transport Board buses may have helped to save the life of a young man who was stabbed on a bus late on Thursday evening.

The radio on the Yald-hurst-bound bus had enabled the driver to have an ambu-

lance and the police on the scene within minutes, said the Christchurch Transport Board’s operations manager, Mr E. H. Saundercock. “In the old days the driver would have had to look for a telephone box, or try to find a phone in a private house, which could take some time. People are not very keen to open their doors to strangers late at night,” he said. The victim, Mr Peter

Thomas Buschman, was admitted to the intensive care unit at Christchurch Hospital with a serious knife wound to the abdomen. He has been moved from the intensive care unit to a ward, but is still seriously ill. A youth, aged 18, was apprehended in Riccarton Bush soon after the stabbing, and appeared in the District Court yesterday charged with the attempted murder of Mr Buschman. It was in just such incidents that the speed of radio communications was invaluable, said Mr Saundercock.

Court appearance, P. 4

About 90 of the board’s 180 buses have now been equipped with radios. Eventually all will carry them.

The police said last evening that they had found a knife they believed was used to stab Mr Buschman.

Detective Senior-Sergeant R. A. Meikle said that the police would be very interested to hear from a Dutchman who was sitting in the back seat of the bus and who disembarked at either the Clarence Street stop or the one before.

They would also like to hear from three other persons who got off the bus at the Clarence Street stop. Senior-Sergeant Meikle said those people could approach the police any time over the week-end.