The Government is to examine the possibility of extending new safety regulations to include all buses carrying schoolchildren.
This follows yesterday morning's school bus crash near Clara, Co Offaly, in which a 15-year-old boy was killed. The bus overturned on a straight stretch of bog road between Clara and Rahan just before 8.30am on its way from Clara to Killina Presentation Secondary School, near Rahan. No other vehicle was involved.
More than 30 students were travelling on the bus, which was hired privately by their parents to take them to school.
Because it was not part of the State's school transport scheme, it was not covered by the new regulations introduced by the Government after last year's Meath school bus crash in which five teenagers died.
Under these regulations, the so-called "two-for-three" system of three pupils sitting on two adult seats is being phased out, and buses in the scheme must have seatbelts fitted by December this year.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told the Dáil that these new regulations did not apply to buses hired privately by parents, but the Government would now look at this.
A spokesman for Minister for Transport Martin Cullen said the Minister favoured introducing similar requirements on passenger numbers and seat-belts for private buses carrying children.
A total of 33 students and the bus driver were taken to hospitals in Tullamore and Mullingar. Five students and the driver were still detained last night. Two students were recovering from surgery for glass lacerations while the other patients were being kept under observation.
The boy who died in the crash was named as Michael White, the only son of Michael and Martina White, who also have a 12-year-old daughter, Ciara. The family run White's pub on Main Street, Clara.
The 1989 Mercedes Benz private hire bus had travelled a few kilometres from Clara when the crash happened on the narrow road.
The bus overturned and was on its roof facing in the other direction when the emergency services arrived. The back axle lay in the ditch on the other side of the road. The bus was not fitted with seatbelts.
All public service vehicles are required to pass a Department of the Environment roadworthiness test annually and it is understood that the bus had passed this test in the last couple of months.
Private buses are commonly hired by parents if their children do not qualify to be taken to school on a Department of Education-funded bus.
