Number of fatalities in county meath bus crash

scojones

Breaking news on sky news channel at the moment. Appears to be a school bus. eek

Lisapeep

Story found here:

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2005/05/23/story203894.html

Tar.Aldarion

did any1 die?i didnt see that anywhere so maybe it's ok

banquo

still in prog.

tinkerbell

Those poor children

Astro1996

its reported 4 have died

Tar.Aldarion

banquo

this is pretty awful.

Squirrel

What ages were the people on the bus?

Silverfish

Squirrel wrote:

What ages were the people on the bus?

All kids from 4 secondary schools in the town. So about 12 to 17?

banquo

It was a kids schoolbus. hence the awfulness.

JackKelly

god.what exactly happened the bus?

scojones

This is truly awful. Those poor kids. I'm watching RTE now to see if I can get more details on this. No deaths have been confirmed, just reports at the moment. Lets hope there are none.

ArthurDent

RTE radio news saying bus and two other vehicles involved.

Wertz

Drogheda -> Kentstown Co Meath
road isn't the best from what I recall and the showers about today are pretty heavy and producing a lot of surface water. poor kids...four dead so far and that'll prolly rise too (hope not)

scojones

RTE news on the tv said at least 4 feared dead. Damn

Silverfish

Sky news are saying 5 kids may be dead - and some casualties still trapped on the bus.

The Black Oil

RTÉ reporting 2 Air Corps helicopters on the scene.

scojones

Supt. Kevin Donoghue confirmed some people are still trapped in the bus. Also confirmed it's a secondary school bus. He's admitted that there are fatalities but that he cannot confirm how many.

Astro1996

sky news reporting 5 girls dead...:( very very sad

scojones

Yeah, confirmed with RTE.

cmcquaid

yeah seems to be between 4-5 dead with kids still on the bus and i thought i had problems

Blisterman

5 scholgirls killed
http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0523/rta01.html

The Black Oil

Spokesperson for CIE on Today FM confirmed bus didn't have seat belts.

scojones

I was thinking about this a few years ago... Who uses seat belts on buses? Hardly anyone - this should be enforced. Also, how often is your bus driver using his mobile phone? Too bloody often! A vehicle without seat belts should not be allowed on the road.

Neil_Sedaka

sjones wrote:

A vehicle without seat belts should not be allowed on the road.

Absolutely

The Black Oil

CIE Spokesperson didn't comment as to age of buses or whether all schoolbuses have seatbelts or not. RE: mobile phones, isn't that simply not enforced here?

jinxycat

it has been confirmed 5 girls are dead, all taken to navan hospital, still some fatal injuries which were taken to drogheda hospital. it has not been confirmed who the girls are. is very sad indeed.
parents still have to identify the girls, all parents have been notified. i passed by navan hospital on my way home, and seen guards there. is very worrying as there was also 2 cars involved, nothing was said about the passengers in them.

Wertz

I can safely say (sorry about pun) that I've never even seen a bus with passenger seatbelts, in this country. Or trains for that matter...

rugbug86

The Black Oil wrote:

CIE Spokesperson didn't comment as to age of buses or whether all schoolbuses have seatbelts or not. RE: mobile phones, isn't that simply not enforced here?

i saw pics of it, it looked like one of the older ones

Third_Echelon

The Black Oil wrote:

CIE Spokesperson didn't comment as to age of buses or whether all schoolbuses have seatbelts or not. RE: mobile phones, isn't that simply not enforced here?

A zoomed pic on the news showed a 1993 reg on the bus...

Dr. Dre

To get a bus full of schoolkids to wear seatbelts would be nigh on impossible IMO.

chillywilly

ye it looks like an old one.

sad.

The Black Oil

Could have been anything I suppose, car driver's fault, poor road conditions, mechanical failure...there'll be Gardai and CIE reports after a few months. Should be more on the scene details on the 9pm news.

rugbug86

do they have a cause yet?

The Black Oil

At least 53 others have been hospitalised after the accident, which happened on the Navan to Kentstown Road.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0523/rta01.html

Repli

That brings the total dead on roads in Ireland this year to 149 , that's well over 1 per day, it's ridiculous

Third_Echelon

Sky News seemed to be suggesting that the bus was trying to avoid hitting 2 other cars that had already collided...

MrJoeSoap

Horrible news, really shook me up.

CathyMoran

It is always incerdibly upsetting when motor accidents happen - the fact that children were involved just brings it closer to home - thoughts go out to all those involved.

The Black Oil

Lives destroyed, school communities, school dynamic... no doubt some of them would have been sitting the Leaving Cert in a few weeks.

Wertz

The Black Oil wrote:

Could have been anything I suppose, car driver's fault, poor road conditions, mechanical failure...there'll be Gardai and CIE reports after a few months. Should be more on the scene details on the 9pm news.

A passing comment about resurfacing work on the road in question on the 9pm news...
If it's the same sub surface that was implicated in a few other fatal Irish crashes then questions will need to be asked and heads should roll. OK I'm being a bit presumptious, but it's a straight road. If the bus was trying to avoid an earlier collision between the two cars as has been suggested, why wouldn't it have been able to stop? Schoolbuses have limiters on em to stop speeding. I'm no expert but it looks dodgy in a lot of ways...

My heart goes out to families laid waste by this tragedy....really does bring home the fraility of life.

marco murphy

I know for a fact that road was all slippy.No seatbelts on the bus.Utter chaos in navan this evening.

marco murphy

The Black Oil wrote:

Lives destroyed, school communities, school dynamic... no doubt some of them would have been sitting the Leaving Cert in a few weeks.

not even...junior cert,or near it

Stompbox

Two of the girls were my brothers friends friends. I don't who they are but their Dad told me. It's a crying shame. Some of my friends were injured in the crash but they were minor injuries like cuts across the head and sore backs

Brendan552004

I publish the Irish Media Guide, I have also written the book "How to Pass your Driving Test - First Time. I just cannot understand why both buses and trains do not have compulsory wearing of seat belts. Just to sit in a bus or train you can see all the metal all around you.

If you are over 30cm in height, you are obliged to wear a seat belt in a car, all these kids would have been saved if they had been wearing a seat belt, it is back to Fianna Fail again, it costs money to police laws, they dont even have them in place, my heart goes out to the Mothers, Fathers, Brothers, Sisters, Relations and Friends of all the children involved. I have six children and I know how I would feel.

Six months ago I got pulled for tax out of date, my tax was six days out of date, I appeared in court and it was thrown out of court. I think they should use their resources in a much better way. Great support.

Brendan

A Dub in Glasgo

Terrible tragedy

scojones

Brendan552004 wrote:

I publish the Irish Media Guide, I have also written the book "How to Pass your Driving Test - First Time. I just cannot understand why both buses and trains do not have compulsory wearing of seat belts. Just to sit in a bus or train you can see all the metal all around you.

Here here! I've been thinking about this for a long time, why isn't it enforced? There was a bus crash in south africa a while back, 37 killed, no seat belts. It could have easily been the same here today. Something has to be done...

billy the squid

This is a terrible tragedy, and my sympathies go out to the families who have been affected by this.

But should we be surprised by this. In this country the way to upgrade a road is to dump some tar macadam on top of whatever is already there and say "yay the road has been fixed"

really some roads in this country are a disgrace and it would take more than a layer of tar to fix them or make them safer. Maybe now the government will look at better ways of repairing our country roads.

It is sad that people have to die before things get done in this country.

smokingman

I live near enough to where it happened but let me say this;
When the meath co. council was doing the road up the way a bit just after Duleek heading for Julianstown (it was a right mess - there effectively was no road, more of a path) they put up temporary traffic lights that were not in sync. I don't know how many times I passed along that road and saw that the last car to have the green light at one end having to move in for oncoming traffick because the lights on the other end had gone green early.

I hope to christ this didn't happen here.

My sympathy to all involved and especially to those who lost loved ones.

The Black Oil

http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0524/navan.html

The five girls killed in yesterday's bus collision in Navan in Co Meath have been named.

They were Lisa Callan, 15, from Newtown, Beauparc in Navan, Claire McCluskey, 18, from Rathdrinagh also in Beauparc, Amy McCabe, 15, from Hayestown in Navan, Deirdre Scanlon, 17, from Yellow Furze also in Beauparc and 15-year-old Sinead Ledwidge from Senchalstown in Navan.

RIP