Bus-test firm guilty of safety breach after a fatal crash

A VEHICLE-TESTING firm was yesterday convicted of breaking health and safety laws over a road accident in which a schoolboy died.

Michael White, 15, died from ‘catastrophic injuries’ after a Mercedes bus lost its rear axle on a bog road seven years ago.

A jury yesterday found O’Reilly Commercials guilty of one count of breaching health and safety law over an official test on the school bus eight months earlier.

David O’Reilly, on behalf of the firm, denied four health and safety offences of failing to ensure persons were not exposed to risks to their safety or health as a result of the way the test was carried out.

The jury convicted the firm on one count which outlined a failure to note the modified rear suspension system.

Jurors cleared the company, from Westmeath, Co. Mullingar, of three other charges.

A 23-day trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard how the 1989 bus went out of control on April 4, 2006, after its rear axle came off outside Clara, Co. Offaly. The accident led to the death of the teenager.

A bolt missing from the right side of the rear suspension system led to fatigue fractures, ultimately resulting

‘The vehicle was tilting to one side’

in both sides of the suspension failing and the rear axle coming off.

Raymond McKeown, of River Street, Clara, Co. Offaly, who bought the bus in September 2005, previously pleaded guilty to failing to maintain the bus. He is to be sentenced next month.

Judge Margaret Heneghan adjourned the case of O’Reilly Commercial to next month when a sentence date will be fixed.

The bus’s previous owner James Gaffey told the trial how in 2003 he replaced a damaged rear spring with a second-hand spring.

Mr Gaffey brought the bus to O’Reilly Commercials in 2005 to have it tested for an official roadworthiness certificate. He sold the bus to McKeown afterwards.

A large number of school children told the trial that the bus was in bad condition and they described banging and rattling as it travelled over bumps in the road.

One witness said the bus was leaning to one side on the morning of the crash. Kayleigh Murray said she had heard a bang as the bus went over a bumpy part of the road the previous afternoon. She said: ‘The bus was fairly broken down. I’m not a mechanic but it was tilting to one side’.