A COUNCIL is changing its policies after a school bus operator did not alert emergency services to a crash in January which left some pupils injured.

Dorset County Council (DCC) launched an investigation after a bus service operated by Barry’s Coaches heading to schools in Puddletown left the road and ended up in a field near Dewlish sometime around 8.30am on Friday, January 25.

Police and paramedics were not alerted to the scene – but some of the children ended up being taken to hospital later by their parents. No children were seriously injured.

Dorset Police was informed of the incident some two hours later and Dorset County Council's schools emergency plan was actioned in response to the incident at 12.15pm on the day of the crash.

After receiving a report from the bus driver, the county council launched an investigation which has now concluded.

School transport operators are now being urged to take appropriate action if a similar incident happens in the future and call the emergency services immediately, even if they believe there have been no injuries.

A DCC spokesman said: "If there is an incident on a school bus route we expect the transport operator to contact us. From our investigation, we are told that the bus company did try to contact us but could not get through. Our policy now asks that bus operators must email us if they cannot get through on the phone.

"If an incident occurs, we expect the transport operator to coordinate actions on the ground, this includes contacting the emergency services. Our policy states that if there is any such incident, the transport operator must contact emergency services immediately, even if there are no injuries and no immediate danger to pupils and the public.

"In this case, the police are not taking any further action and the driver was not at fault, due to road contamination."

The spokesman added that the responsibility to call the emergency services lies with the bus operator, which had not happened in the January crash.

Michelle Hills, director at Barry's Coaches, said: "We've made investigations and have implemented things within our company.

"We will make sure we know what the council's expectations are to make sure they conform with ours."