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Questions over driver error and a successful roadworthy certificate issued to the bus that plunged into a river at Rheenendal in August 2011, killing the driver and 14 children, arose in the Knysna Magistrates Court on Thursday.
On Wednesday Tata Motors Limited regional service engineer Martin Graham told the court the bus's brakes did not work and the gears were faulty.
But on Thursday it emerged that he bus had passed a roadworthy test on April 14 2011 - four months prior to the tragedy .
Informing Graham that Payle's widow Francis had previously testified that her husband's only grievance about the bus was that the brakes were "hard", bus company African Express's legal representative Johan Nel asked Graham why Payle did not complain of anything else.
"Surely he [Payle], as an experienced driver, should have reported these issues, if the vehicle had already passed a roadworthy test?"
Graham answered that it was his experience that many drivers of large vehicles would "adapt" to the functioning of a bus or truck.
He said after conducting his investigation of the bus after the accident, there was "no way" the April 14 roadworthy test could have been done properly.
The evidence of another witness, Mark Cooper, who assisted testing the bus's functions after the accident, corroborated that of Graham.
The inquest was later postponed and set down for October 16 to 18.
