Probe into accidents clears bus design
A review of bus safety after three serious crashes says the NZ Transport Agency does not suspect vehicle design or manufacturing deficiencies contributed to them.
The report was requested by Transport Minister Phil Twyford after three Mitsubishi Fuso buses crashed within 11 days in July and August 2018, killing two.
There are more than 1700 Mitsubishi Fuso buses in use here, making them the second most popular make in the national bus fleet of 11,216 vehicles.
The report prepared by the Ministry of Transport, ‘‘with input from the NZ Transport Agency’’, said that although ‘‘each of the crashes involved Mitsubishi Fuso buses manufactured between 1991 and 1995, the NZ Transport Agency does not suspect that vehicle design or manufacturing deficiencies contributed to the crashes’’.
The crash on Mt Ruapehu killed 11-year-old Hannah Francis, 19 people were injured when a bus crashed on State Highway 1 in Manawatu¯ , and 69-year-old driver Allan Campbell died when the Tranzit Coachlines bus he was driving crashed down a bank off SH3 in Taranaki injuring 13 Inglewood High School students.
The agency found all three Fuso buses that crashed had current certificates of fitness and driver licences were in order.
The three accidents are still under investigation.
The transport agency said there was no link between the vehicles involved in the crashes and its recent suspensions of heavy vehicle and certificate of fitness certifiers.
Nor did it have any record of any specific issues with the bus operators prior to the crashes.
In response to last year’s fatal crash on Mt Ruapehu, the Bus and Coach Association is developing a code of practice for alpine operators covering vehicle standards, maintenance and driver training.
Ruapehu Alpine Lifts voluntarily suspended its passenger service licence after the fatality which occurred when one of its buses was travelling down the mountain from the Turoa ski field.
Some passengers told Stuff they thought the brakes had failed, but police said there was no evidence the crash was caused by mechanical failure.
The MOT bus safety report said no further details of the crashes would be available until investigations by the police, transport agency and the Coroner were complete.
It said that although the number of bus crashes was higher than average in 2017, over the last three decades, statistics had remained relatively stable.
Each year on average there were seven fatal, 29 serious and 98 injury crashes involving buses.
As a mode of transport, the report said taking the bus was much safer than going by car, with 22 car drivers and 13 passengers killed or injured for every 100 million kilometres travelled, compared to three bus passengers.