No seatbelts before Kenya van crash - College Report
Bethlehem College says it's making changes after an internal investigation revealed several students had
driven during a school trip to Kenya.
Some of the passengers in a minivan that crashed in Kenya, claiming the lives of three New Zealanders, weren't wearing seatbelts and the vehicle was overloaded, an investigation has found.
Tauranga's Bethlehem College launched an internal inquiry into the circumstances of the accident after it was revealed former student David Fellows, 18, was driving the minivan at the time.
Tauranga anaesthetist Brian Johnston and his wife Grace, 19-year-old Caitlin Dickson and local man Christopher Mmata, who should have been driving, were killed in the crash near the Ugandan border in January.
They were part of a group of 19 people - 12 students and seven adults - who were on a volunteer mission to Kenya organised by the college.
Greg Hollister-Jones, chairman of the college's board of trustees, said the investigation found that three former or current students had driven at various times during the trip.
There had also been previous instances of students driving on an earlier trip to Kenya.
He said the college had always worked under the belief that no students would be driving on these trips, but that was not actually stated in the school's risk analysis and management systems (RAMS) document.
"We also discovered that the van was carrying two more people than its stated capacity and, despite having been made aware of the seatbelt laws in Kenya, a number of passengers were not wearing their belts at the time of the crash," Mr Hollister-Jones said.
Further, Mr Mmata had encouraged current and former students to drive as part of their Kenyan experience and this had been allowed by some tour group leaders, Mr Hollister-Jones said.
"As a result of the inquiry we are changing our RAMS document to make it explicitly clear that as well as complying with all local laws, the vans/buses must not be driven by students, that seatbelts must be worn and at no time should the number of passengers exceed stated capacity," he said.
No disciplinary action would be taken against tour group leaders.
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