Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
A union is worried how easily the front of a bus crumpled during the fatal bus crash on Auckland's Tamaki Drive last week.
A diesel car caught fire, after it collided with an electric bus, and the fire quickly spread to the bus.
Sixty-one-year-old driver Sean James Cleary died in the accident.
Earlier, Auckland councillor Richard Hills told Local Democracy Reporting he was disappointed with "bizarre anti-EV propaganda" and misinformation circulating after the crash.
Tramways and Public Transport Employees Union president Gary Froggart said, while his concern was not with the bus being an electric vehicle, he was concerned about how strong the bus was built to be.
"We are concerned as how easily the front of the bus crumpled, as it's only fibreglass, and how safe it is, maybe for an ordinary crash."
Froggart said he was told by the bus operator, Kinetic, that the driver was trapped in his driver's cab as a result.
Crash bars may need to be installed in the front of buses to reduce the impact of crashes, Froggart said.
Sean James Cleary. Photo: SUPPLIED
Although the deceased driver was not a Tramways union member, Froggart said his union also wanted to be kept in the loop of the ongoing investigation, as the safety aspects concerned all bus drivers.
Froggart said he felt Kinetic had not kept them updated.
He also raised concerns that some union delegates, who had personally known Cleary, had been declined bereavement leave to attend his funeral this Thursday. He said Kinetic had given the reason that the funeral was private.
Froggart said he would talk to Kinetic's management about this.
Kinetic and Auckland Transport have been approached for comment.
Meanwhile, police said the investigation into the crash was ongoing and no charges had been laid.
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