The driver of a school bus that crashed resulting in the death of a boy has told a court the bus was due to be serviced a week after the fatal crash.
The owners of the bus have been charged under health and safety laws with failing to maintain it, while a vehicle testing firm is charged with failing to note defects in the bus.
Michael White (15) died after the bus in which he was travelling went out of control and flipped over on a bog road outside Clara, Co Offaly, on April 4th, 2006.
Westmeath vehicle-testing company O’Reilly Commercials Ltd, Ballinalach, Co Westmeath, is charged with failing to note defects in the 1989 Mercedes bus when it tested it in August 2005.
The owners of Clara Cabs, Raymond and Ruairí McKeown, both of River Street, Clara, are charged with failing to maintain the bus leading to the death of the boy.
All the accused have denied all the charges.
On the second day yesterday of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, bus driver Gerard Buckley told Caroline Biggs SC, prosecuting, that two weeks before the crash, a schoolboy came up to him and asked him if he had heard a bang from the back of the bus. He told the student he couldn’t hear anything where he was because of the noise of the engine and the radio.
Incident reported
Mr Buckley told Ms Biggs he had reported the incident to Raymond and Ruairí McKeown, who owned the bus. He told the court they said they would check it. He said Raymond McKeown later asked him how the bus was going.
“Any time I’d see him, he’d say ‘how is that bus going?’ ” he said. “I’d say ‘it seems to be going grand, it seems to be fine’.”
He added: “I was informed that the school holidays were coming up and it would be going in for a service and an overhaul.” He told the court that the holidays were due to start about a week after the crash.
Bus tilting
Mr Buckley told Diarmaid McGuinness SC, defending O’Reilly Commercials Ltd, that he did not notice the bus tilting to one side and he could not explain what would cause that. He said he did not believe it was due to any issues with the air in the suspension system.
Mr Buckley also described seeing the back axle coming away from the bus during the crash.
“We were after going down the Rahan road just after the hill and just on the flat spot. I heard a bit of a bang and felt a thud. I could see the back axle coming away, making its way away from the bus, kind of following me. The bus was going towards the left, the arse of it going right.
“Next thing I knew I could see the verge going through the windscreen, and then up on to its roof and it came to a stop. I can remember someone struggling with the door.”
He said he saw some students trying to force the bus door open and he knew that it had slid to one side.
“I grabbed it and I think I broke the door in half pulling it. I got everyone out. Everyone was dazed or confused. Some students started walking towards Rahan thinking they were going to Clara. I noticed young Michael White lying under the bus.”
Mr Buckley said he made a number of phone calls for help. He said he was later “reluctantly” taken away for medical treatment by emergency services.
He told Ms Biggs that the bus capacity was 33 and a driver and that the normal number of children on the bus was 35.
The trial continues.