After a study last month revealed that 52% of transport companies experienced compliance inspections, both on the roadside and also regarding driver’ hours regulations, a report by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) of Ireland, made public by RTE’s programme This Week, made for negative news for September where compliance was concerned.
According to RSA data revealed during the RTE broadcast, 51% of buses inspected during the year 2017 by the RSA were found not to be compliant and failed roadside inspections, with, alarmingly, around a third of the buses inspected subject to major defects—bearing in mind that school buses obviously account for a substantial proportion of the bus vehicles involved in the checks.
The RTE programme provided a figure breakdown of this worrying data, where 873 buses account for the total of bus vehicles inspected, 445 accounted for those failing to comply with safety regulations, 268 actually had major defects and 37 showed dangerous defects—the range of defects which immediately allows authorities to stop that vehicle from operating and take it off the road—with all the consequences this might lead to.
The concern over these vehicles and especially the school buses is actually nothing new. Reinforcement actions over the roadworthiness of school buses have been put in place by the RSA for the school year 2017/2018 following a negative record dating back to 2016: 1,207 buses were inspected by RSA enforcement officers at the roadside and, while again a considerable proportion (50%) had defects, one in five (20%) showed major faults. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) in the UK followed a similar programme when some buses were found to be defective, apparently after clumsy cost-cutting attempts had impacted on safety and ended up actually costing operators their licence.
According again to the RTE broadcast, RSA had expressed their concerns by way of a letter sent to Bus Eireann, the major operator of school buses, which is ultimately responsible for almost 4,500 vehicles, via private operators, that bring 117,000 children to and from school. In the letter, Liz O’Donnel, chairperson for the RSA, claimed that RSA roadside inspections yielded little progress in terms of roadworthiness and compliance improvement. Bus Eireann’s spokesman said the company has a robust system in place, though the RSA seemed to claim the company had contacted them to get more information on the programme for high-risk operators (typically school buses)—which it is not strictly connected to running a compliant fleet.
After the broadcast, the Coach Tourism and Transport Council of Ireland did not release any statement, though among the private bus industry some sources pointed the finger at high fuel and insurance costs, together with falling payments of school transport operators as the main causes for the safety breaches.
