SCHOOL BUS CONDEMNED

Evening Star, Issue 23130, 2 December 1938, Page 7

SCHOOL BUS CONDEMNED

CORONER'S COMMENT YOUNG CHILDREN ISOLATED FROM DRIVER TRAGEDY OF BOY'S JUMP . (Per United Press Association.] BLENHEIM, December 2. Returning a verdict at the inquest that- John William Barr, aged seven, died as the result of head injuries received in a fall from “a moving school bus near Seddon on November 21, the coroner, _Mr E. J. Hill, added a rider condemning the fatal vehicle as unsuitable for the purpose of the conveyance of young children. The Coroner added, that he couldn’t see that the driver of the bus was blameworthy. If there was blame it was to the method of transport of the children, and there was much need of improvement. He undertook to forward a recommendation to the Transport Department that vehicles of such type should not be licensed for the purpose for which this bus was used. The disclosed that the bus was a light delivery van with a canvas hood, but open at the back except for a 17iiu tailboard. Alexander Carlyle Reilly, the.driver, a son of a contractor, J. Anderson Reilly, of Seddon, said the bus was occupied by 10 children between the ages of five and 13. There was no. adult with them; and he was seated in the cab entirely separated from the children,who could communicate with him only by tapping on the cab window,. which was a fixture. If he needed to. com-’ municate with them he had to stop and get out. On the occasion of the accident he inadvertently drove past the deceased’s gate. On pulling up ,40yds beyond he went- to tell the children to sit still while he backed to the gate, but found that'Barr had jumped out. The vehicle was licensed by the Transport Department ;on- October 6. A schoolgirl, aged 12, gave evidence that when the bus didn’t stop at Barr’s gate he threw something out, then put his foot on the tailboard and jumped out. Nobody suggested that lie should do it, and he was not pushed. .The bus was travelling at ordinary speed. The coroner added a rider to the verdict drawing the attention of the responsible department to the fact that in his opinion the vehicle involved, although licensed, was quite unsuited for the conveyance of young children ; that the absence of control by the driver, and an open back, guarded only by a low tailboard, should disqualify such a vehicle from receiving a certificate of fitness for the purpose for which it was used. He submitted that the matter was one meriting immediate attention by revision of the system or regulation which permitted such vehicles to be employed, not only in Seddon. but in other districts of New Zealand.