Crowded buses a danger

PARENTS and students at a southern Tasmanian high school have raised safety fears amid overcrowded buses to and from the school.

A picture taken on a bus carrying Taroona High School students (inset) on Friday shows passengers crammed in, including a large number who were forced to stand and hold on to rails.

Tasmanian public schools returned to classes in the middle of last week and enrolments at Taroona have swelled from 999 in 2017 to 1116 last year.

Parent Garry Brown, whose 14-year-old twins Mack and Lutzia are in Year 9 at the school, said the problem was getting worse.

Mr Brown’s son Mack took the photograph on the bus.

“We were discussing it prior to the school year recommencing and they were quite concerned about what was going to transpire and their greatest fears came to light in the first day or two of the new (school) year,’’ he said.

“They actually get quite anxious at times having to catch the bus to and from school, particularly on the warmer days.”

Mr Brown claimed there had been instances in the past where students had fallen over on the bus and hurt themselves. He said the ideal of social distancing had also been disregarded.

“Give us more buses. And manage the onboarding of the kids — limit the number of passengers,’’ he said.

Labor Franklin MP David O’Byrne said crowded buses were an issue of safety.

“The state government continues to refuse to take the necessary steps to improve the situation,’’ he said.

A government spokeswoman said improvements had been made at the start of the year, including a larger bus to transport students from South Hobart in the mornings and an extra service to Fern Tree in the afternoons.

“There is no space in the school grounds at Taroona for additional buses due to constrained space,’’ the spokeswoman said.

The government said standing passengers was a legal and normal practice across Australia.