Schoolgirls killed in bus crash not wearing seatbelts

THE five schoolgirls killed when the Bus Éireann school bus bringing them home went out of control and overturned were not wearing seatbelts.

It emerged in the evidence yesterday that it appeared the bus had been fitted with seatbelts but nearly all had been removed at some stage.

The postmortems on the girls found their injuries were consistent with being in “a roll-over transportation incident where the passengers are unrestrained”.

Meath county coroner John Lacey told the families of Claire McCluskey, 18, Deirdre Scanlon, 17, Lisa Callan, 15, Aimee McCabe, 15, and Sinead Ledwidge, 14, that he would inquire into what caused the tragedy.

The substantive evidence on this was given by Garda PSV inspector Adrian Tucker, who said that if the ABS system fitted to the bus had been working properly the wheels would not have locked up and the driver would have been able to maintain control and to steer the bus.

He concluded there were seven contributory factors to the accident but the most significant was the defective anti-wheel locking or ABS system.

“It was a dangerous defect with fatal consequences,” he said.

He also said the bulb for the warning light to indicate if there was a malfunction in the ABS was missing.

The accident happened at Mooretown on the Navan to Kentstown road at about 4.15pm on May 23, 2005, as the bus took 56 students, some who were standing, towards their homes from secondary schools in Navan.

At the time it was not compulsory for seatbelts to be worn on buses.

The driver John Hubble described how he slowed down as he approached temporary traffic lights on the road. At the time he estimated the bus was travelling at between 56km/h and 64km/h, under the speed limit of 80km/h. He braked again and the back of the bus swung round.

It swung out in an arc and crossed into the path of an oncoming car. Both vehicles spun 180 degrees and the bus overturned trapping the five schoolgirls underneath it.

Garda Tucker said his examination of the bus found lap belt-type seat belts on the five seats at the rear of the bus but they were hidden underneath the seat cushions.