Company knew brakes were faulty, bus-crash jury told
The jury in a trial arising from an investigation into a school bus crash in which five schoolgirls were killed has been told that a company knew the vehicle's ABS system was defective but failed to repair it.
Mr Brendan Grehan SC, prosecuting, told the jury in his opening address that gardaí and the Health and Safety Authority carried out an investigation into the crash outside Navan in which Lisa Callan, Claire McCluskey, Amy McCabe, Deirdre Scanlon and Sinead Ledwidge were killed on May 23, 2005.
He advised the jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that it would not be concerned with the accident itself because the charges faced by two companies, Keltank Ltd from Balbriggan and McArdles Test Centre Ltd from Dundalk, preceded the collision.
Mr Grehan said it was the alleged offences under Section 7 and 8 of the Health and Safety at Work Act that would be the "focus of your deliberations".
Ms Sonya Kelly, company secretary, pleaded not guilty on behalf of Keltank Ltd, to two charges of failing to undertake necessary maintenance and repair of the ABS system on the bus on May 6, 2005.
Mr Joe McArdle, a director, has pleaded not guilty on behalf of McArdles Test Centre Ltd, to two charges of failing to note the ABS warning light on the bus was not operational while conducting a vehicle test on March 15, 2005, two months before the tragedy.
Mr Grehan (with Mr Remy Farrell BL and Mr Jonathan Kilfeather BL) told the jury it would be the State's case that the ABS system in place on the vehicle "significantly increased the severity of the accident" but added that he wanted to "make it clear" that it was not the only factor that contributed to the collision.
He said Keltank was contracted by Bus Éireann to service and maintain the school bus and there would be evidence that Keltank staff were aware that the ABS system was not working but they failed to repair it.
He said the vehicle had been tested at McArdles on March 4, 2005 to establish if it was roadworthy but it failed on a large number of points. The vehicle was returned to the test centre on March 15, 2005 where it was re-tested and deemed roadworthy after it was noted that the previous problems had been corrected.
Mr Grehan told the jury that it must "try the case dispassionately and without sympathy" but added that it would be unreasonable to consider the case without any knowledge of the accident.
He said the students were killed instantly after they were thrown through the shattered windows of the bus after the vehicle veered into oncoming traffic, skidded into an embankment and overturned onto its side.
He told the jury there would be evidence that a bulb in a warning light, that alerted the driver to the fact that the ABS system was not working, had been removed and a computer system that recorded faults in the braking system had exceeded the maximum number of incidents (254) it had the capacity to record.
Mr Grehan said investigators also found that the cables in the ABS system had been corroded and tests suggested that they had been in this state for quite some time.
He told the jury that Bus Éireann had already pleaded guilty to offences under the Health and Safety Act in relation to the brakes on the bus added that this did not affect the jury's deliberations nor the culpability "one way or another" of either Keltank or McArdles.
Mr Grehan said that 55-year-old bus driver, John Hubble, an experienced driver who had been working on that bus for eight or nine months, had "no instruction" in relation to the ABS system on it.
He told the jury that the single decker Bus Éireann vehicle was carrying 56 local school children from Navan to Kentstown that day. There were roadworks en route, in a townland known as Mooretown, where temporary traffic lights were positioned to allow a one way traffic system.
Mr Hubble was travelling under the legal speed limit of 80 kph or 50 mph on a road that had recently been resurfaced and had just been subjected to a heavy downpour of rain.
Mr Grehan said that when he approached the lights, having just turned a slight curve on the road, the lights were red for his direction and two vehicles had already stopped at them.
Counsel said Mr Hubble put his foot on the brake and when he applied the brakes a second time, the vehicle shuddered before it skidded onto the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic.
Mr Grehan said the bus then veered out of control before it struck one oncoming car which then struck the car behind it.
He said the bus spun around and careered down the road before it stopped, having effectively turned 180 degrees. It then skidded onto an embankment when large windows on one side shattered. It then overturned onto its side and the five young students were thrown out of it.
Mr Grehan said that gardaÍ concluded that eight factors contributed to the accident that day:
(1) the weather conditions;
(2) the roadworks at Mooretown and the fact that warning signs could had been better positioned;
(3) the set of temporary traffic lights could also have been better positioned although their siting was not in breach of any guidelines;
(4) the wet road surface but subsequent tests later showed that the condition of the road that day was "adequate for normal traffic";
(5) the speed at which the bus was travelling but Mr Grehan said that although Mr Hubble was driving the vehicle within the speed limits, a reduced speed would had been preferable considering the conditions of the road and the existence of the road works;
(6) the condition of the vehicle;
(7) the fact that there were 56 students on a vehicle that had the capacity to seat 53 passengers;
(8) the fact that none of the passengers were wearing seat belts which was not a legal requirement at the time.
The hearing before Judge Patrick McCartan and a jury of five men and seven women is expected to continue for three weeks.
