I thank the Minister for coming into the House to listen to what I have to say. The need for safety in large vehicles which carry a big number of passengers is fairly self-evident. Everybody would agree with that general idea. It is certainly obvious in the case of buses where 90 people, or approximately 90 people, are carried. It is essential that those buses should be safe for the sake of the passengers and also, of course, for the sake of the public at large who risk being injured or, indeed, killed if something goes wrong with these buses which might lead to accidents.
I begin by making those fairly broad points. What triggered me into raising this matter on the Adjournment was a specific case which has come to my attention. It relates to an accident which took place on 21 August 1989. A number of people were standing at a bus stop in south Dublin when an oncoming bus veered across the road and killed a person at the bus stop. A number of people standing against a wall adjacent to the bus stop narrowly escaped serious injury or, for that matter, being killed.
At the time the newspapers, particularly the Irish Indpendent and the Irish Press, reported that CIE, through their spokesman, promised a full scale inquiry into the incident. I cannot say for certain whether the report of this inquiry was published. I imagine it was not. I have sought the information from CIE on two occasions and, quite simply, they have not come back to me. The appropriate person was not available and on either occasion did they get back to me with the information.
I can find no evidence, after searching to a reasonable extent in newspapers, and also through communicating with the family of the unfortunate man who was killed that the report was published. I believe it was not published. In the last month or so the events were the subject of a court case. During that court case it emerged that the Garda expert witness found that the service brakes were defective and were not kept in a good working order. The judge who was dealing with the case said, and I quote, that "the driver should not be asked to drive a bus in that condition". The brakes were described as faulty when the bus went out of control.
Dublin Bus denies that the faulty brakes caused the accident. I certainly am not in a position to say that the faulty brakes did or did not cause the accident. The evidence which is available to me certainly would not allow me to reach a definitive conclusion on that matter. A spokesman for Dublin Bus said that there were various reasons for the crash, but the spokesman then went on to say and, I quote, "I cannot say what they were".
I find it quite disturbing that Dublin Bus can state that there were various reasons for the crash, and yet are not in a position to say what they were. Certainly Dublin Bus are not giving the public any assurance that the reason for the crash has been attended to, in other words, that the reason has been eliminated. That does not appear in any of the newspaper reports that I have seen on the matter.
Further to that, another spokesman for Dublin Bus said that he is confident that all their buses are safe. I find that mind boggling. If somebody says that all the buses are safe and if it emerges in the course of a court case that brakes were faulty to the point that a judge says that buses with those type of brakes should not be on the road, I find that absolutely distrubing. The spokesman from Dublin Bus went on to say that it is the company's policy to replace a bus when it is 16 years old. That is routine procedure. The bus which was involved in this accident was 17 years old. Indeed, the spokesman for Dublin Bus who made that statement is further quoted in the same newspaper report as withdrawing the statement and he went on to talk about financial reasons why the company's buses depreciated over a period of time, etc.
A journalist in the Dublin Tribune wrote that Dublin Bus have no plans to change their maintenance policy, despite a court finding that faulty brakes on a 17 year old bus were to blame for a fatal accident in which a student was killed. I find that very disturbing. The evidence has emerged clearly that there was a 17 year old bus on the road which had faulty brakes, yet a public transport company have no plans to change their maintenance policy. Clearly, as I see it, the maintenance policy has failed. It has failed because a faulty bus went out on the road and tragically was involved in an accident. I am not saying that the brakes were the cause of the accident, but what I am saying is that there was a maintenance policy in use which allowed a bus with faulty brakes to be on the road. I have to say that that is extremely disturbing.
I would ask the Minister, first, to try to see if it is possible to have the report of the inquiry which was conducted by Dublin Bus into this matter published. I cannot say if the inquiry is completed, but I imagine that one year on from the time of the accident that the inquiry would be completed. That is the least, as it were, that should be done. I also think that some assurances should be provided for the public in relation to the maintenance policy and the standards of service which are in use by Dublin Bus.
I find the attitude of Dublin Bus to the maintenance and safety standards of their vehicles arrogantly disturbing and a matter for public concern. Dublin Bus have refused to change their procedures for bus maintenance despite Garda evidence in a court case that the brakes on a 17 year old bus which was involved in a fatal accident were faulty. At the time of the accident Dublin Bus promised a full inquiry. The findings of that inquiry were not published as far as I can ascertain. Dublin Bus now state that there are various reasons for the accident, and yet they cannot say what they were.
This will certainly do nothing to alleviate concern about safety standards in Dublin Bus, especially when the judge involved in the court case following that fatal accident remarked that the driver should not have been asked to drive such a bus.
It is intolerable that Dublin Bus are continuing with a maintenance policy which clearly failed to prevent a 17 year old bus with faulty brakes being on the streets. The public must be reassured about the safety standards of a public service company that carries thousands of people each day, when one of its vehicles was found by a Garda expert to have brakes which were defective and not kept in good working order.
I ask the Minister to ensure that Dublin Bus publish the report of the inquiry into this accident. I would also ask the Minister to ensure that they review their maintenance policy for old buses and let the public know what the risks are and how they are reduced to acceptable levels when old buses are being used for public transport.
Again, I want to thank the Minister for coming to the House and listening to the debate.
