Children travelling to school from North Bundaberg to Moore Park Beach will have a much safer trip after the Member for Burnett Stephen Bennett stepped in to address overcrowding concerns.
Mr Bennett was approached by parents who raised concerns that children were frequently being forced to stand in the school bus aisle on their way to and from school due to overcapacity issues.
“The safety of children should be our utmost priority and when parents came to me telling me that their children had no choice but to stand and sit in the school bus aisle floor on numerous occasions for more than 20 kilometres, I took their concerns very seriously,” Mr Bennett said.
“I don’t take these concerns lightly. I shudder to think what would have happened if the school bus was in an accident, especially given that many children were jam-packed into a bus without any seatbelts, travelling at up to 100km/hr.”
Following enquires from Mr Bennett, changes have been made to the school bus run which will take effect today.
Mr Bennett said students will now be reallocated to other buses with spare capacity to alleviate safety concerns.
“I want to assure parents and guardians that we have taken all necessary steps to ensure that children are safe and as of today, changes have been made to the school bus run to address this serious safety concern,” he said.
“I’m pleased we were able to achieve a positive result to improve safety for children travelling to and from school and I thank everyone involved who brought this matter to light and took action.”
ENDS.
Tuesday, February 28, 2017