A school bus driver is being praised for her actions after the vehicle she was driving, carrying 18 school children, teetered on the edge of a 30m drop in Hawke's Bay for 15 minutes today.
The Waipawa Buses vehicle was filled with children from Tikokino School when it went off Smedley R in Central Hawke's Bay at about 3.30pm.
Tikokino Fire Brigade deputy chief fire officer Mike Harrison said the bus was manoeuvring to avoid a group of sheep, when the accident occurred, leaving the vehicle stuck at a 45-degree angle on the cliff edge.
Bus driver Diana Lear called for help on her cellphone and then kept the children calm and unmoving on the instable bus for the 15 minutes it took for emergency services to arrive.
The bus was hooked up to a tractor driven by Tikokino farmer Murray Hastie, to keep it from dropping off the edge, and was hauled back onto the road once all its occupants had been evacuated under by emergency services.
Mr Hastie said the sheep that Miss Lear had tried to avoid were being led along the road by two cadets working on the station, one of whom rushed to raise the alarm after the bus left the road.
Mr Hastie said some of the children trapped on the bus were "pretty freaked out".
"It wasn't far off rolling. It could have easily been a major bloody disaster really" he said.
Mr Harrison said if the bus had gone over the edge someone would probably have been killed.
"I would say just about, it (the bus) would have rolled quite some way" he said.
Fire officer Mr Harrison said the bus driver took the right action in the circumstances. "The bus driver was very good, she made the kids stay still." The children were transported back to Tikokino School, where they were checked by ambulance staff and re- united with their parents. Counselling has been provided.
While the bus did not suffer any obvious damage in the accident, it was to be taken to Vehicle Testing New Zealand to obtain a new Certificate of Fitness before returning to the road. Mrs Muggeridge said that was standard procedure.
- HAWKES BAY TODAY
Bus full of children hangs on cliff edge
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.