28 buses ordered off road following safety compliance checks
28 buses ordered off road following safety compliance
checks
A joint Transport Agency/Police operation
aimed at ensuring the safety of
passengers using buses
in Wellington has ended with 28 buses in the region
'pink-stickered' and removed from service for
significant fluid leak faults.
The Police Commercial Vehicle Investigation Unit (CVIU) and the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) today completed a two-day operation to assess the safety of the region's buses, to ensure that a range of serious faults previously discovered on 14 buses in an operation conducted in May had been addressed.
A total
of 104 buses were stopped during the operation in the Hutt
Valley, Wellington and its suburbs.
Kate Styles, Transport Agency Regional Manager, Access and Use, said: "While it is encouraging that a number of the safety faults identified by our operation in May have been addressed, it's disappointing that so many buses were found on the road with serious oil leaks which had not been fixed.
"Our focus is
squarely on the safety of passengers using Wellington buses,
and while it's pleasing that many improvements have been
made, the best
result would be to find that every bus on
the road was up to the standard
that we expect and that
passengers are entitled to expect. Unfortunately that hasn't
been the case. The purpose of these inspections is not to
order buses off of the road – it's to ensure that the
buses that people in the region use every day are safe.
"The Transport Agency is pleased that NZ Bus will be
working with us in the
weeks ahead to ensure that the
issues identified in this week's operation are addressed."
Senior Sergeant Willie Roy, of Police CVIU, said the
common theme among all 28 of the vehicles ordered off the
road was serious oil leaks – an obvious
fire hazard.
Other significant faults detected on a number of buses
included
insecure fuel tanks and battery boxes, as well
as faulty lighting. Vehicles
that receive pink stickers
must immediately be removed from service.
Mr Roy
said the buses pink stickered represented about 30% of the
vehicles
checked. When combined with a range of other
safety faults detected, 47% of the buses stopped and checked
had some kind of fault, he said.
"The responsibility
now lies squarely with the operator to fix these
problems, so the public can be assured these services
are safe and we will be working alongside NZTA to ensure
this happens."
ENDS