The owners of two companies that were involved in a fatal bus crash in Ireland in 2006 in which a 15 year old boy died have gone to court today to start their trial relating to the crash.
The accident, which occurred on the 4 April 2006 in Clara, Co Offaly, left 15 year old Michael White with catastrophic injuries. White died at the accident scene. Now the owners of the Offaly based bus hire company that was leasing the bus, and a Westmeath vehicle testing firm that tested the bus for roadworthiness are being tried with charges related to failure of maintenance of a vehicle, leading to a person’s death.
In the first day of the trial, one of the passengers on the bus gave a statement saying that the bus had been tilting to one side for some time prior to the crash, and that she had warned the driver that something was wrong with the vehicle. The prosecution’s Senior Counsel, Caroline Biggs, said that the state would provide evidence to show that the responsible parties did not take any action to correct the problems the bus was having, when witnesses noticed that the vehicle was tilting while driving.
As well as the witness statements from students on board the bus at the time of the accident, other students claimed that they heard loud bangs coming from the bus in the weeks leading up to the accident, after the bus had hit a bump in the road.
Stuart Coyne, a student who was sitting next to Michael White on that fateful day, said that the bus was very full on the day of the accident, with some pupils sitting in the aisles.
The owners of O’Reilly Commercials of Ballinalack, Mullingar, a vehicle testing company that failed to take note of defects to the bus when it was tested months before the accident, are facing a number of charges related to the crash.
In addition, Ruairi and Raymond McKeown, the owners of Clara Cabs who were renting the bus to the school, face a number of charges of violations of the 2005 Health and Safety Act that requires bus owners to keep the bus in a well maintained, and safe condition.
All of the accused have pled not guilty to all charges, and are now preparing to defend themselves in court. The driver of the bus has not been charged.