Eketahuna school bus blown off road

The bus being driven back to the Masterton depot after it was blown off the road earlier in rural Eketahuna.

A school bus carrying 18 students was blown off the road in a sudden gust of wind in rural Eketahuna yesterday morning.

Eketahuna chief fire officer Max Mayer arrived at the scene to find the bus on a lean against a fence after it had veered off the tarseal into a soft shoulder on Mangaroa Rd.

He said the driver and the kids on board, a mix of Tararua College students and primary school pupils, were fine and not injured in the incident, which happened about 7.45am.

The Tranzit bus was only slightly damaged with a dent from breaking off a fence post.

Mr Mayer said when the fire crew were first alerted they thought it was going to be a lot worse than it was.

"We thought it was on its side ... we weren't looking forward to it." Mr Mayer said the bus driver was also an Eketahuna ambulance driver - a good person to have at a crash scene.

"She had things in hand."

Another bus was summoned to pick up the students to take them to school while the crashed bus was checked and cleared to be driven back to the Tranzit depot in Masterton.

Tranzit Coachlines spokeswoman Jenna Snelgrove said the bus was on a school run heading to Tararua College in Pahiatua through the back of Eketahuna.

She said the driver was a trained ambulance officer, a very experienced driver and drove the route every day.

"It was a sudden gust that caught the bus - at the time the vehicle was doing a very low speed so it veered off the road and no injuries or damage were sustained."

She said training for driving in windy conditions was included in Tranzit's crisis management plan. "We also have a unit standard covering the dynamics of vehicles which all school bus drivers complete and this covers vehicle size in different conditions such as high winds."

They also reminded drivers to stop if the conditions were considered to be dangerous.

Gale-force winds and gusts have been hammering the country and yesterday MetService issued a severe weather warning of gusts of 130km/h in exposed places in Wairarapa.

NZTA also warned drivers on the Rimutaka Hill Rd to take care, especially high-sided vehicles and motorcycles.