Drivers highlight school bus danger in Navan yard

The dangers that face hundreds of Navan students because of a lack of safety measures at the railway yard where they catch their school buses has been highlighted by their bus drivers, public representatives and the VEC. The situation where hundreds of schoolchildren gather each evening in a yard with no road markings, bus bays or safety measures has been described as a major risk, amid warnings that there could be a major accident there. The CEO of Meath VEC, Peter Kierans, has agreed that there was a serious problem when he attended a meeting of Navan Town Council last week, when Cllr John Duffy said he had seen a number of serious incidents in the bus depot beside Navan railway station. 'There is no surface, no order or shape there and nobody seems to know who is responsible,' said Cllr Duffy. 'There are hundreds of students there every evening and 10 or 12 buses parked there. The drivers are very concerned because there can be boisterous behaviour,' he said. Cllr Jim Holloway described the situation as very dangerous and said it would have to be addressed. 'It is intolerable that such an unregulated set-down area, which effectively operates as a depot, should remain in that condition. 'There is no proper surface and no markings whatsoever at this location. The responsibility for this state of affairs must be clearly identified and measures be taken to ensure that this set-down area complies with the highest safety standards,' he said. Mr Kierans, who is also the school transport liaison officer, agreed there was a problem with huge numbers of students clamouring to get on the buses and said they tended to rush and charge. 'There are several hundred pupils and they all want to get the back seat and to sit with their friends,' he said. Mr Kierans said that, in Drogheda, all the school buses bring children to the bus station in the morning. They then get on buses to their individual schools and, in the evening, the buses collect them from school and bring them to the bus station, where they get on the buses that will take the home. He said he would look at the entrance to Beaufort College with a view to providing turning space for a bus. Mr Kierans told the meeting that 400 students use school buses in Navan each day and 10 buses ply the various routes and all go to the railway yard. He said the principals of the schools in Navan met regulary and had asked him to relay their safety concerns. He said they had asked him to formally ask the council for a safety audit of markings and safety features outside the various schools. A spokesperson for Bus Eireann said the company had been utilising the Navan Railway Yard as a safe collection point for school services in the area for at the least the last 40 years. 'Bus Eireann regards the Navan Railway Yard as a safe collection point because children are collected inside the yard, which means they don"t have to queue on the side of the road. 'In addition, each service has its own well-established parking space within the yard, so that children know day-in, day-out where their service will collect them from,' he said. 'Bus Eireann will certainly take on board any suggestions from interested parties, including local representatives, on additional safety measures that could be implemented at Navan Railway Yard, which is owned by Irish Rail,' he said. It did not prove possible to get a comment from Irish Rail before we closed for press.