Warnings from Queensland's leading police traffic accident investigator

QUOTE:- “Each day I see heavily laden buses carrying both commuters as well as school children traveling our roads. Knowing what can occur to unrestrained occupants, seated as well as standing, it frightens me and yet at the same time angers me. It angers me because I know that this situation need not exist.

I have heard comments to the effect that to be injured in a bus is so many times less than a car or a motorcycle. I have heard comments that there has yet to be sufficient justification for the fitment of seat belts. I have heard comments that it would be too expensive to fit seat belts. I have heard numerous other comments as to why seat belts should not be fitted or only a limited number of seat belts provided.

In answer to these comments I can only say that had these persons seen what I, and those who took part in the rescue operation, had seen that day, there would be little doubt left as to the need for seat belts for all those who travel on buses. This does not refer to those buses of the future but to all buses now operating on our roads." - Senior Seargant Ruler - Senior Traffic Accident Investigator (Qld Police), investigator of the Tamborine Mountain Bus Crash, Queensland -  42 injured, 11 dead.  

  Click HERE to see an animated bus roll-over

Below, school bus accident Jimboomba, Qld. (2000)

“The practice of transporting bus passengers standing in the aisle is dangerous and should not be permitted, especially for school bus passengers  . . . .  . . . . . . . from The Unversity of California, USA -  school bus crash testing research - study by Severy, Brink & Baird, 1967

Seatbelts on School Buses Now!                                                

Typical scene on a Queensland schoolbus - click on the picture to see what YOUR State Member has to say . . . . .                            

What some members have already said:- "The Beattie government is also trying to con parents into believing that it is implementing the Task Force's recommendations, but the real test is the allocation of the money . . . . . . . .Based on current funding allocations it will take 200 years to upgrade the school bus fleet. I am guessing that by then we will not even have buses." Mike Horan, Qld. MP (Nat) - 20th June 2002 & "Those of us who live in the southern suburbs of Cairns would clearly have imprinted in their minds the horrific school bus crash that occurred on the Gillies Highway in 1987. It is becoming apparent that the potential for a repeat of the tragedy is increasing, as we on a regular basis receive news reports of accidents involving buses carrying schoolchildren." Warren Pitt Qld MP (ALP) - 29th May 2001

WARNINGS from Australia's leading expert in coach and bus safety:-

About the campaign

Join the fight !

Warnings from Queensland Doctors

Warnings from Queensland Lawyers

Yet MORE Chilling Quotes & Pics

Media & Publicity Diary

Qld. bus accidents 2004

COMMENTS from ordinary Queenslanders

Links

Contact

Qld. Gov. supports seatbelts - for YOU not THEM

Labour Party Policy (Qld) about seatbelts on school buses & questions from a mum

Below left, school bus accident South Australia (2001).  Below right, school bus accident Rockhampton, Qld. (2001)

Click on the pictures to read the story of each crash (opens in new windows)

    

WARNINGS from New South Wales's leading road safety expert:-

Quote - “It is a chilling and horrible thought that on Australian roads today there are buses operating in the carriage of dozens of passengers – even with more than 100 passengers — who are unrestrained. That many of those buses are school buses, filled with children under the ‘3-for2’ seating  rules without seatbelts, and with a proportion standing in the aisles and not even able to benefit from the limited safety of a seated position, is from any objective perspective a national disgrace.”

Ian Faulks

Chairman of the New South Wales Government's "Stay Safe"  travel safety committee & leading road safety expert.

 

 "The bus you describe loaded with 103 children and 40 standees together with school bags, no seatbelts, low backed seats with no energy absorption in an impact with another vehicle of equal or greater mass would, in my opinion, give rise to an accident greater than the Grafton disaster.  In a roll over that might occur there is great potential for an equally disastrous event.  I would forecast a 40% to 50% death rate and over 90% injury rate for the remaining children." Emeritus Professor Peter Joubert  Chairman of the inquiry into the Grafton & Kempsey bus disasters of 1989.  Quote from Prof. Joubert's letter to Mrs. Kim Bax, August 2000.  Full text HERE

"The Sunday Mail"

WARNINGS from Queensland Police

(click on the article to read it)

 

 

WARNINGS from Queensland's top safety expert

QUOTE:- “Students, clinging to bars and straps could not survive an accident in which, for example, a bus hits a bridge pylon. Passengers would be thrown around with a force equivalent to 12Gs (Twelve times the force of gravity). An F-16 jet fighter pilot can withstand up to 9 Gs. A passenger holding onto a strap who did not die as a result of his or her velocity would be killed by impact with another “straphanger” from further down the aisle.”  -  PROF. ROD TROUTBECK (link opens in a new window) - Head of School of Civil Engineering at Queensland University of Technology, quoted from an article in "The Sunday Mail," 2000

Co-alition Party Policy (Qld) about seatbelts on school buses.

Kay Elson,  Federal Member for Forde (Lib), supports seatbelts on school buses

Warren Pitt, State Member for Mulgrave (ALP), supports seatbelts on school buses

Election results by individual electorate (Qld) - Feb.'04

Maybe Queenland should get its next Transport Minister From Ireland . . . .

ABC on-line, lawyers predict Gov. will ignore Qld. Bus Safety Task Force recommendations

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