Transport minister Phil Twyford has asked officials to investigate the cause of three recent North Island bus crashes.
The accidents are “a real cause for concern” and the Ministry of Transport and NZ Transport Agency have been instructed to investigate further, Twyford told media at Parliament on Thursday.
One accident involved the death of 11-year-old Hannah Francis when the bus she was in lost control and crashed into a roadside barrier at Mt Ruapehu on July 28.
Another saw the death of Tranzit Coachlines bus driver Allan Campbell, 69, after his bus left the road and crashed into a ditch on Takanaki’s State Highway 3.
A third accident involved a bus crashing into a ditch on State Highway 1 in the Manawatu with 19 people on board.
Twyford says it’s important to investigate any links between the recent crashes.
“I have asked the Ministry of Transport and the NZTA to look at these three incidents and first tell me whether or not the certificate of fitness testing has been implemented with sufficient rigour.
“And secondly I want them to look at all three cases and see if any common elements can be learnt from them.”
Twyford acknowledged all three accidents involved Mitsubishi Fuso buses.
“I can understand why people would jump to conclusions based on the fact the three incidents involved buses of the same type.
“But again there may be other factors at play here so I’m just going to let the officials do their job,” Twyford says.
Meanwhile, Tranzit Coachlines managing director Paul Snelgrove says he is confident the investigation will find no problem with Mitsubishi Fuso and that any link is just a coincidence.
“Once the Serious Crash Unit, the CVIU (Commercial Vehicle Enforcement) inspect all the vehicles, it won’t be a Mitsubishi problem,” Snelgrove told Radio NZ.
“We’re 100 per cent confident in our fleet maintenance, we have a stringent maintenance programme.
“We knew within minutes of the accident … all the vehicles are electronically GPS monitored so we know the speed, the direction, what happened, except what the driver was doing, we know everything else,” Snelgrove says.
