On Friday, March 6, we went to the government garage in East Bathurst because we knew that the new multifunction vehicles for BHS had been parked outside the garage as recently as the day before. Both of these vehicles had been donated to the High School and we were interested in seeing them for ourselves.
We went into the building and the people there were very friendly. They told us that the large red bus had been driven to the High School that very morning and it was parked in the parking lot.
So we went down to the Bathurst High School and saw the new vehicles in the parking lot. They are really impressive, beautiful looking vehicles, constructed by Thomas, which makes the yellow school buses. 
It gives you confidence knowing that these buses are steel reinforced and if there was ever an accident that the survival rate of the passengers would be greatly increased. But it makes us sad because we know that our boys would still be alive today if they had been in one of these two multifunctional buses last January. It took their deaths for these changes to take place.
However safe these buses are, the changes made by the Department of Education do not go far enough. We are still extremely concerned about who is going to drive these vehicles. We want Class 2 Drivers to drive these vehicles. Class 2 Drivers drive yellow schools buses and they have higher standards of training. 
Class 4 Drivers are not trained professionals. The drivers will be the same as before, teachers, coaches and parents who volunteer their time to help get their children to extra-curricular events. They are not trained to drive these large vehicles and although they may be well intentioned, they simply do not have the skills set, the experience or the training to be entrusted with our precious childrenen.
