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Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Swiss disaster brings home hazards of touring on coaches

By Sally Grogan


The world is still reeling from the tragic accident which occurred in Switzerland recently which cost 28 lives, 22 children and six adults, when a bus ploughed into the concrete wall of a tunnel.

Those in charge of investigating the accident are examining the chance that the driver was trying to put a DVD on that resulted in him being distracted and losing control over the vehicle, which then hit a kerb and veered across two lanes before smashing into the tunnel wall. The coach operators were Belgian and said there had been two drivers aboard the coach at the time - both of them were killed - and added that while there was not a set process for changing DVDs or CDs while on a journey, it had been up to the drivers themselves to show commonsense.

CCTV images failed to find out what actually took place on the coach that night but what isn't in dispute is that there is a very high fatality rate, which occurred despite the passengers all wearing seat belts at that time.

Since 2006 it's been compulsory, when travelling in EU countries, that drivers and passengers on tourist coaches wear seatbelts and the EU adds that there ought to be specially adapted belts for younger children. It also says that the driver bears the responsibility to make sure that all his passengers are complying and are wearing theirs. Sadly, in this case, the belts were of little use because of the angle and speed of the impact.

Although the belts were ultimately not life savers on that tragic occasion, more often than not they are and it is an area of child safety that is likely to come under discussion as a result of the crash in Switzerland. The current rules on school buses within the UK declare that all rear seated passengers aged 14 and over must wear a seat belt where one is fitted, which relates to all buses and coaches, while front seated passengers already are required to wear a seatbelt. However, if the school bus is a "large bus", schoolchildren who are aged over three but under 14 do not have to wear a belt.

The Department of Transport states there will be consultation on the issue of the wearing of seat belts on school buses for those aged under 14, though it is not yet known whether the timing of the consultation has been impacted by the Swiss crash. Though seat belts tragically failed to avoid deaths on that occasion, it's beyond dispute that in many other instances they save lives, so all people who have responsibility for bus safety will need to have that at the forefront of their minds.




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