Parents in the Mackenzie District are calling for school buses to be retrofitted with seatbelts, and they are willing to cover the costs themselves.
“It just seems crazy that to drive a 5-year-old into school, they need to be in a five-point harness, but on the school bus we would wish them luck and hope to see them again in one piece at the end of the day,” said Lake Pūkaki resident Mike Bacchus.
Since the Ministry of Education took over the management of the Twizel Area School buses in 2023, Bacchus noted that buses with seatbelts have been replaced with those lacking this safety feature. While he praised the “great bus drivers,” he pointed out that there are many factors beyond their control, including other speeding vehicles that could easily lose control.
Recently, Bacchus spoke on behalf of the local community, urging the NZ Transport Agency to review the district’s roads following three crashes. Among these were two bus crashes on SH8, resulting in injuries to dozens of passengers, including children, and a truck and trailer accident less than 24 hours later. Bacchus highlighted the locals' practice of adjusting their driving to the conditions and communicating warnings to each other. “Unfortunately those not based here don’t truly grasp the realities of driving here, particularly in the winter months when the black ice is unforgiving,” he said. He suggested implementing variable speed zones adjusted to the conditions as a possible solution, noting that “there must be overseas examples — we are not the only ones with these conditions.”
Bacchus shared video footage of a recent crash and mentioned that many locals have near-miss stories. The district’s three schools — Twizel Area School, Mackenzie College, and Cannington School — are all served by ministry-run bus services. Bacchus, along with others in the community, had contacted the bus company and the ministry in 2023, stressing the importance of seatbelts on the buses. He emphasised the difference between buses used in cities at 50kph and those travelling on State Highways at 100kph. However, their calls for change went unheeded. “We even offered to retrofit the Twizel buses with seatbelts, at our cost, with some community fundraising, but were assured we could not do this and even if we did they would not guarantee that those buses would then be used for Twizel continuously and they might have to be moved to other areas,” he explained.
Bacchus also mentioned Ōtemātātā mother Pip Cameron, who campaigned heavily in 2021 to make seatbelts mandatory on school buses. Ministry of Education group manager for school transport, James Meffan, explained that before April 2023, the two school bus services for Twizel Area School were managed by the school under a directly resourced funding arrangement. “The school decided that they no longer wanted to manage their own school transport and since 24 April 2023 the Ministry has provided their school bus services,” Meffan said. He acknowledged that the previous bus operator used buses fitted with seatbelts, but the Ministry’s contract with bus operators does not require seatbelts, as it reflects regulatory safety requirements.
Meffan added that the NZ Transport Agency sets the safety standards for school buses, and current passenger transport regulations do not mandate seatbelts for most large passenger vehicles. “Last year we were approached by local residents who were interested in paying for their school buses to be retrofitted with seatbelts. They were advised to raise this directly with the bus operator as the vehicles’ owner,” he noted. Emphasising the Ministry's commitment to student safety, Meffan stated, “Our services have an excellent safety record, and we do undertake a range of compliance activities to ensure our providers meet contractual and legislative requirements to deliver our services to a high standard. Our services predominantly operate in rural areas and operators typically employ local drivers who are thoroughly familiar with local conditions.”