Fatal school bus crash trial to be heard next year

Two companies charged over the Navan bus crash which claimed the lives of five young schoolgirls will have to wait until next year to stand trial.

Keltank Ltd, based in Balbriggan, north Co Dublin, which serviced the vehicle and McArdles Test Centre Ltd, Dundalk, Co Louth are to be tried next February in Dublin.

The trial in Trim Circuit Court dramatically collapsed earlier this month after it emerged a juror had attended the funeral of one of the girls.

It will now be heard in the Circuit Criminal Court in Dublin on February 25, 2008. The trial is expected to last two weeks.

Keltank Ltd was contracted by Bus Éireann to service and maintain the 13-year-old coach used to carry pupils home from Navan.

It along with McArdles denies the charges brought against them under work health and safety laws.

The two firms are standing trial together.

McArdles denies two charges of failing to note the ABS warning light on the bus did not function while conducting a vehicle test two months before the tragedy.

Bus Éireann and Meath County Council have already pleaded guilty to separate charges related to the crash near Kentstown, Co Meath.

The bus was travelling well within the speed limit – between 35mph and 40mph - on a country road on May 23, 2005 when the driver was forced to brake at temporary traffic lights set up for road works.

The 53-seater coach carrying 56 schoolchildren from St Michael’s Loreto Convent and Beaufort College, both in Navan, shuddered at first before going out of control.

It spun around 180 degrees before skidding onto an embankment and overturning killing the five girls.

None of the children onboard was wearing a seatbelt as it was not a legal requirement at the time.

Meath County Council has already pleaded guilty to having no project supervisor or health and safety plan in place at the time of the crash.

Bus Éireann pleaded guilty to failing to maintain the coach in a safe condition and failing to provide information and training on the bus’s ABS breaking system to veteran driver John Hubble.

Claire McCluskey, 18, Deirdre Scanlon, 17, Lisa Callan, 15, Aimee McCabe, 15, and Sinead Ledwidge, 15 all died in the crash.

Another 46 schoolchildren were injured in the incident.