Parents concerned with kids standing on packed school buses
He’s been hailed as one of the top up-and-coming drivers in the world, but Thomas Boniface isn’t letting it get to his head.
While on holiday in America during the school holidays, the 13-year-old from Taranaki spent a day with five professional driving instructors at former Formula 1 driver Allen Berg’s driving school in California and impressed Berg himself.
‘‘I have not seen a kid with that much natural car speed and car control as Thomas showed on their first time in an unknown race car for many years,’’ Berg said.
Thomas said the comments were motivation to carry on improving himself to live up to them.
‘‘It made me rethink that I actually need to boost my confidence in myself because really there’s a lot of talent out there and hopefully in the next few years I can show I’m one of those talents. So it’s really good to hear from someone who was from that high level because it reinforces the fact that I’m a good driver,’’ he said.
He said he had learned quite a lot from the driving instructors, who used camera footage and data from the Formula Renault cars as well as watching the young drivers as they went around North California’s Leguna Seca track.
‘‘They all had some good constructive criticism. Every time I went out they all had something, so it’s always good to learn from your mistakes,’’ Thomas said.
‘‘They taught me to be very accurate and be very consistent because you try to be as fast as possible but you also try to be consistent to be at that level all the time.’’
During the day, Berg taught him the importance of making the car ‘‘flow’’ and keeping everything as smooth as possible. Annalisa Facer wants a change in laws around school bus seating before tragedy strikes.
Facer’s daughter Willow Johnson catches the bus between Spotswood College and Oakura. The year-9 student is rarely able to get a seat and so must stand for the 15 minute journey that is largely on the open road with a 100kmh speed limit.
Facer said she knew the buses had a legal standing limit but wanted the practice to end for the safety of the students.
‘‘But it’s just one of those things
‘‘Any F1 driver or major person in the motorsport community is a big idol because you know they each have something different to share. So it’s really awesome that he’s taking a drive school and promoting young drivers to be the drivers they are today,’’ Thomas said.
Thomas began racing for Team Kiwi Racing (TKR) around 18 months ago and this season will continue competing in the BMW Drivers championship.
‘‘Thomas Boniface is the real deal and he has a very exciting future ahead of him should we be able to keep finding the funding to nurture this talent to a point where his natural ability will shine through and teams will be wanting to secure and pay for his services in the future,’’ TKR team owner David John said.
For mum Donna and dad Robert, it was a proud moment that why wait until something goes wrong?’’
Facer has support in her stance from Inglewood woman Faye Gurry, who lost her 9-year-old son Terry in a bus crash in 1993.
Gurry said the current safety standards were diabolical and wanted a ban on standing and compulsory seat belts.
Her son died after his school bus crashed on its way to Kaimata School.
After his death the family launched a petition calling for seatbelts in buses. But after discussions with various authorities they were told it was too expensive. watching him perform as well as he did. Both said they didn’t have any problems with him taking control of a car that could top 200 kilometres an hour.
‘‘I wasn’t nervous, it’s a funny feeling – I felt apprehensive but only for him, I knew he’d be okay behind the wheel once he settled in,’’ Robert said.
Donna said she did get nervous ‘‘but my nerves aren’t about him making a mistake or driving badly, my nerves are him being disappointed with himself because he is really hard on himself’’.
‘‘If he makes a mistake or something goes wrong and I see that he’s made a mistake then I worry about the self-talk he’s going to do for himself because he’s really hard on himself,’’ she said.
‘‘So when he comes in, that’s really my role is that I talk and unpack it...to try and get it out of his system.’’ PHOTO: ANDY JACKSON/STUFF
‘‘But what is the cost of a life?,’’ Gurry said. ‘‘So we gave it up in the end. We were very fragile and it just didn’t happen, and I’ve regretted it ever since.’’
Taranaki Regional Council transport services manager Chris Clarke said the students travelling to Oakura had options if they did not want to stand.
‘‘All they need to do is wait for the other buses,’’ he said. ‘‘The buses aren’t illegally overloaded; they’re allowed to carry standing passengers. The buses are the safest form of transport.’’
He said the biggest issue was in the afternoon, but more and more seats became available as students were dropped off. He said there had been no incidents related to children standing on buses.
‘‘We do not want to put the safety of children at risk.’’
Spotswood College principal Mark Bowden said he had often been out on bus duty and seen drivers tell children to wait for the next one because the bus was full.
He said standing in buses was not ideal.
‘‘They shouldn’t be, but until they change the law that requires all students to be seated and belted in, the contractors are within the law,’’ he said.
‘‘This is a historical issue which I think will change in time.’’