Seatbelts A Must For Buses

Next week, it will have been six years since the tragic passing of Casey Stinson-Brown, a 19-year-old who suffered fatal head injuries after the bus he was on veered off the road and rolled on Shute Harbour Road near Brandy Creek when he was returning home from TAFE.

Ten others were taken to hospital, with four of those critically injured.

In the years since, Casey’s mother Nikki Brown has campaigned for improved safety regulations in the wake of the event on February 16, 2016.

The coronial inquiry of the events finished in March 2021 in Mackay magistrates court, with coroner John Aberdeen recommending the implementation of seatbelts by state government in the wake of the teenager’s death.

Ms Brown told the court that seatbelts could prevent other families from suffering the loss of a child like she has.

"No other family should be required to go through something as painful as this, for something so simple that is required in all motor cars, airplanes, coaches and taxis," Ms Brown said.

"My family will be forever broken."

The findings were presided over by Magistrate David O’Connell, who said, regardless of road conditions, that Casey’s was a preventable death.

"If Mr Brown had been restrained in his seat by a properly fitted seatbelt, he would have suffered far less injuries than he did, and certainly would not have suffered those non-survivable cranial fractures,” Magistrate O’Connell said.

He further recommended that the state government make it a requirement by December 1 of this year that all newly manufactured route buses must be fitted with a seatbelt for each passenger seat, and that existing buses be fitted over a 10- or 12-year time frame, or otherwise be retired from service.

"Overall, I am persuaded that seatbelts being fitted on route buses would reduce loss of life and the severity of injuries in bus crashes," he said.

The state government said they were reviewing the findings.

Ms Brown said they learned a lot in the inquiry, and that the review by the government gave her some hope that we would see seatbelts in the future.

“I hope Casey’s death isn’t in vain; that we haven’t lost him for nothing,” she said.

“It shouldn’t come down to money, because I sat there for three days listening to solicitors talking about how much it would cost but how do you put a price on someone’s life?”

A bus overturned in 2016, causing injuries to ten people, and the death of Casey Stinson-Brown

Casey Stinson-Brown tragically passed away at 19 after the bus he was returning home in overturned

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