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Arguments over an inspection of the African Express Tata bus that plunged into the Kasatdrift River dominated proceedings on the second day of the Rheenendal bus disaster inquest in the Knysna Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
Fourteen children and bus driver, Tiaan Colin Payle, 65, died when the bus plunged into the river, about 20km from Knysna, on August 24 2011.
Taking the stand were Rheenendal community leader Bidwell Sam, Rheenendal Primary teacher Jacobus America and Rheenendal Primary principal Sammy Williams, who were later cross examined.
As was the case on the first day of the inquest, the gallery was packed with emotional family members of the dead who on several occasions had to be quieted by the bailiff.
Sam said parents had already expressed concerns about the state of the buses but it was only on August 2 2011 that a meeting was held with America, who was standing in for Williams because he was out of town.
However under cross examination by Dirk Coetzee, for African Express, it emerged that it was not specified whether the parents had expressed concerns about the fated blue Tata bus that ended up in the Kasatdrift River, or another white Mercedes bus owned by African Express also used to transport the Rheenendal pupils.
Reading from the statement taken from America, Coetzee pointed out that one of the concerns raised by Sam and the parents was that the school children were fighting on the bus.
"Children fighting on the bus surely has nothing to do with the state or condition of the bus?" he argued.
Another concern raised was that one of the drivers of the Mercedes bus was driving too fast. However, in the statement made by Williams to police, this was the only complaint he had ever received about any of the buses.
"No one every complained about the Tata bus, only this one complaint about the Mercedes bus," the court heard.
Sam's testimony that the buses "always broke down" was also brought into question, as he had no way of knowing how often the buses were serviced at the Concordia depot in Knysna.
In his testimony, America confirmed that he had held a "10 minute" meeting with parents on the night of Tuesday, August 2, 2011 to discuss their concerns over the state of the buses.
He said he had drawn up a list of what had been discussed and left this on Williams's desk to peruse on the following Wednesday morning.
On the Friday he had been instructed by Williams to undertake an inspection of the Tata bus which would eventually be involved in the accident, but testified that he did not know why as he had assumed the problem lay with the white Mercedes bus.
Conceding that he was "not a mechanic", he said he believed his 30 years driving did give him the experience to make a judgement on the state of the bus.
"I looked at the lights, the handbrake and the tyres. I also asked Mr Payle if he thought there was anything wrong with the bus, and he told me there wasn't. I then reported this back to the principal [Williams].
He did acknowledge to Norman Arendse, one of the lawyers representing the families, that some parents did seem "deeply concerned" about the state of the bus service at the August 2 meeting, but seemed satisfied that he would look into the matter.
The case continues.
