THE bus which left the road and smashed onto its side and into a gully on Hastings River Drive was just minutes away from driving on the Pacific Highway.
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In the mind of Peter Rodgers, this is the most frightening thought of all.
Following the bus crash on Tuesday afternoon, the School Transport Action Group (STAG) spokesman has slammed the state government and local MP Leslie Williams for what he believes to be serious inaction on the issue of school bus safety.
"Shame on Leslie Williams for not demonstrating any advocacy regarding school bus safety," he said.
"Shame on Busways for putting our children in decommissioned urban buses, decades old and never designed for rural bus routes.
"This was an accident waiting to happen."
Filled with some 36 kids, including senior and a handful of primary school students, Bus 35 was on its daily trip towards Wauchope.
But the journey would be cut short at about 3.45pm, when a group of Port Macquarie school students were flung from their seats in a bus crash.
The Port News was told of children being forced to use their limbs to brace themselves, as the bus left the road and tipped onto its side.
The 20-year-old Busways vehicle, once used in metropolitan parts of the state, was not fitted with seat belts.
And, despite the government's promised $208 million towards fitting buses with seatbelts in NSW, this particular bus will not be eligible for a retrofit.
"Sad to say it finally happened," Mr Rodgers told the Port News on Wednesday.
"A school bus crashes and children are injured, some seriously. If the children had been travelling on a modern bus fitted with seat belts, I am sure that there would have been fewer injuries and most likely no serious injuries at all."
As recent as September last year, Mr Rodgers raised concerns the government was trying to white-wash the seatbelts on school buses issue.
But Port Macquarie MP Leslie Williams said for the first time in NSW, and following years of inaction by the previous Labor government: "seatbelts will progressively being installed and standing phased out on almost 1700 dedicated school services over 10 years, starting this financial year."
The changes, however, will only apply to school buses that run on "Contract A" bus routes.
In the whole of the Port Macquarie Hastings, the Port News understands this will equate to a total of three buses out of about 100 likely to be fitted, sometime within the next 10 years.
Busways, has confirmed one of these buses, already came fitted with seatbelts before the government's commitment.