Social media lit up last week when Taylors Arm parents discovered the seat-belted school bus that ferries their children to and from school along the winding narrow route, had been replaced by one without belts.
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Parents said calls to operator Busways revealed 'their' bus had been moved onto the Coffs Harbour route ... and were further enraged when told this was done because travel along the highway was deemed more dangerous than travel on country roads.
Juliana Meta, Operations Regional Manager, Busways North Coast told the Guardian News the change was made due to maintenance issues.
"We have had to temporarily allocate a different bus to the Taylors Arm service due to maintenance issues," Ms Meta said.
"The Taylors Arm service will have a seatbelted bus reallocated once maintenance is completed which is expected to take about another week.
She said that Busways currently has 81 buses across the north coast that are fitted with seatbelts and that all dedicated regional school buses will be fitted with seatbelts by the end of 2021.
"This means that all school services where buses are required to travel on an unsealed road or on sealed roads with a speed limit of 80km/hr or more that are outside urban areas will be seatbelted by then.
"We make every effort to allocate the current seatbelt buses to best serve routes within these parameters. At times, due to overall fleet maintenance, buses need to be reallocated to different routes."
Also making the news:
Ute Schulenberg
Journalism was always my plan but plans being what they are, I did not get to realise it until my early 40s ... and have loved every minute since. For me community journalism is the most intimate and honest place to be in this field - telling the stories of people I live with, side-by-side, every day. It is an honour.
Journalism was always my plan but plans being what they are, I did not get to realise it until my early 40s ... and have loved every minute since. For me community journalism is the most intimate and honest place to be in this field - telling the stories of people I live with, side-by-side, every day. It is an honour.
