A bus driver has been suspended after students from a Hobart Catholic school were forced off a bus and left to walk the remaining three kilometres to school.
The incident unfolded on Tuesday morning as students from Howrah were en route to St Virgil’s College in Austins Ferry.
Bus operator Kinetic Tasmania said in a statement to Pulse that the driver had been “stood down immediately” while an investigation into why the students were “placed in a potentially dangerous situation” was undertaken.
“We take the safety of all passengers seriously, in particular students and young people,” Kinetic Tasmania General Manager Andrew Grzinic told Pulse.
“After becoming aware of an incident involving school students on one of our services yesterday, we immediately deployed another bus to collect them and were in contact with the school to ensure they were accounted for, which they were.”
“We have also been in contact with parents throughout the day”
In a letter to parents, St Virgil’s Principal Jon Franzin said the college was made aware of the incident around 9am.
He said the students were “made to walk the remaining distance to school from Claremont College”.
“The college views this course of action from Kinetic as unacceptable and is currently working with Kinetic senior management to ensure that this type of incident does not occur in the future,” he said.
The bus service to Howrah resumed on Tuesday afternoon after Kinetic provided assurances that there would be no further disruptions.
