Police have confirmed there will be no criminal proceedings after concluding an investigation into a bus crash in the Mearns that left 19 pupils injured.
The inquiry concluded the collision was caused by the bus being caught by a gust of wind from the off side, causing the driver to momentarily lose control.
This caused the bus to veer to the near side where its wheels drove on to a soft verge, which then gave way, and the bus slid down then toppled on to its side in the field.
The accident happened in atrocious weather in October, when the Stagecoach double-decker was ferrying pupils from St Cyrus home from Mearns Academy in Laurencekirk.
Six children were taken to hospital and 13 others had to be treated for injuries at an emergency medical centre set up at the school.
Grampian Police Inspector Ian Kirkwood said, “Consultation has taken place with both the Health and Safety Executive and procurator fiscal and I can confirm that no criminal proceedings are being taken in this case.”
Several “learning points” highlighted by the police during the five-month inquiry have been given to Aberdeenshire Council and Stagecoach.
They included concerns about risk assessment, the CCTV on board, which was not recording, and the lack of an accurate passenger list, which forced police to undertake a fingertip search looking for bodies in the field as no one could tell them exactly how many pupils were aboard.
Stagecoach Bluebird’s internal report stated the driver “did not have reason to suspect the wind was particularly strong” when he left the academy, and “it was only on nearing the top of Garvock Hill that the driver realised the severity of the wind strength.”Weather warningIt also admits staff had not seen a severe weather warning, but “it would not have been any help to the Stonehaven controller as it only referred to heavy rain” and concludes that the driver and controller made “reasonable decisions.”
Staff will now be given access to weather warnings and route risk assessments have been reviewed on all routes with emphasis placed on soft verges.
Councillor and Aberdeenshire provost Bill Howatson said, “Clearly I think there are very important lessons in this report. There’s a very important lesson over the wind threshold, there’s a very critical issue on who and how the weather pattern is determined, becau se the weather can change drama-tically between Laurencekirk and the higher ground.
“There’s also a very pertinent issue about the passenger manifest, because that clearly caused police considerable time to trace those who were involved in it.
“I think we’ve got to learn a very important lesson from that. What is the status of these manifests and how often are they updated?
“I personally take the view given the public concern over the incident that these reports should go to both the education, learning and leisure committee and the infrastructure services committee and be exposed to debate on open forum.
“I think in that way hopefully there will be some assurance from elected members about how they view this incident.”
The learning points identified by Grampian Police were:A risk assessment of the route was undertaken by Aberdeenshire Council staff on September 2 and this concluded the use of a double decked bus was appropriate for that route, with the proviso that two single decked buses would replace the double decked bus during times of high winds unfortunately no wind speed threshold was agreed between Aberdeenshire Council and Stagecoach, and no formal method of determining the weather was in place. It was left for the Stagecoach supervisor at the depot in Stonehaven to make an assessment based on the weather conditions prevailing at the depot at the time. The bus concerned was fitted with CCTV however, when it was examined by police officers following the collision, it was found that the hard drive had not been downloaded for several months prior and therefore it had not been recording for some time. There was no accurate passenger manifest available following the collision, which caused problems as there was potential for parents having left with their children prior to police arrival parties were unable to quickly confirm who was or was not on the bus at the time of the collision and whether all the pupils were safe and accounted for. What was available in the vehicle was a manifest of pupils made up at the beginning of the school year. There was no way of determining its accuracy on that day and this resulted in police being deployed to see each pupil on that manifest a task that was eventually completed about 11.35pm that day.