Carenne Support's latest transport breach

Carenne Support has once again been caught out breaching the rules of the Special Needs Transport Service while at the same time neglecting a student.

Today, the escort on Carenne Support's Kelso run was observed in the front seat of the vehicle while students requiring an escort were still on board the vehicle. One student in particular is known to run off and needs constant supervision. It is the escort's duty to ensure that this supervision is provided.

Under the rules of the SNTS, escorts are to be seated in the rear of the vehicle as close as possible to the student requiring assistance. They are never to be seated in the front of the vehicle. The driver should not have driven the vehicle without the escort in the correct position.

Carenne Support continues to break the rules without any penalty from the department.

Students exposed to exhaust fumes by Carenne Support

Students on Carenne Support's wheelchair bus run under the Special Needs Transport Service in Bathurst are being exposed to deadly exhaust gases from its Toyota bus following its quick fix on its back window.

Over the weekend, the rear window of the vehicle was smashed and on Monday, Carenne Support bus coordinator Dave Graham was forced to place a plastic sheet over the window and tape it on after Mary Housler refused to confirm if the damage was covered by insurance or if Carenne Support would pay for it to be repaired.

Students were driven around in the vehicle by Mark Sealey with the rear window missing and unsealed, exposing them to deadly fumes. Under guidelines for the Special Needs Transport Service, Carenne Support may only use a vehicle which is roadworthy and must have sufficient backup vehicles to cover any issues which may arise with the normal vehicle. Carenne Support has no backup vehicles.

The incident shows how Carenne Support puts profit before the safety of students.

Another scamming bus operator at Carenne

Carenne Gate can reveal that the bus operator who was falsely claiming for taking a Carenne Support director's son home to Oberon instead of to Kelso where he had been taken, Dick Spears has been performing another scam for the best part of 18 months.

Some 18 months ago, when another student was allocated to his Oberon district bus run, Mr Spears re-negotiated his contract with the Department of Education and Communities (then the Department of Education and Training) so he could purchase a larger vehicle. He told the then manager of Special Transport, Gail Vasic that he needed a larger vehicle and that his expenses (such as fuel) would go up because he had to use a different vehicle.

Despite claiming this to the department, Mr Spears uses his new vehicle only once or twice per week, using his old Ford Spectron van the rest of the time, despite being paid by the department to use his other vehicle.

Besides scamming the department, Mr Spears' Ford Spectron is unroadworthy and full of rust according to parents. One parent told Carenne Gate "I have concerns about him using that old bus of his, it has rust everywhere, what happens if he hits something, my son is dead."

The parent claims to have made a complaint about the vehicle to Neil Moon, principal of the Carenne Special School only for nothing to be done about it. "As usual with Mr Moon, nothing gets done, I'm treated like an idiot by him," said the parent.

It's time that the department, Mr Spears and Mr Moon realise that the money going to these operators belongs to the NSW taxpayer and that we expect a decent level of service for disabled student transport, not for them to be riding around in deathtraps like Mr Spears' Spectron.

Principal, teacher lose student, aide abuses him

It has been reported that one day last week, the principal of Carenne Special School Neil Moon and one of his teachers Nadine Dwyer went looking for a student who had ran away from school and into the park across the road. It is claimed that the student walked out the front door of the school, across busy Browning Street and into the park where he lit up a cigarette.

The incident was repeated on Monday and Tuesday of this week. On Monday nobody went looking for the student and on on Tuesday Karina Molenkamp stood opposite the park and yelled "get your fucking arse back here *****." A number of onlookers were horrified at the language used by Mrs Molenkamp towards the student.

It demonstrates how student safety is low on the list of priorities at Carenne Special School.

Carenne Support uses "cheap fix" on bus, places students in danger

Despite claims made in comments on this blog that a bus driver was "breaking the bus", it has been revealed that issues with one of Carenne Support's buses which it used to transport special needs students was caused by a "cheap fix".

It was revealed on Sydney Indymedia that the bus had been put into Clancys Motors in Bathurst after the driver refused to drive it.

Investigations by myself discovered that the vehicle had a lead in a hydraulic line which controls the bus' gearbox and could have caused the vehicle to lose gears and drop out in to neutral when in the middle of an intersection. This is a potentially disabled situation if it happens in the middle of an intersection.

An anonymous source at Clancy Motors said that he believed that the problem was not an issue with the bus itself but came from a "cheap fix" which had been done on the bus at the beginning of 2009. He said that Carenne Support had taken the bus to Sydney as Carenne Support were refusing to pay what Clancy Motors wanted to do the job properly. The source claims that when the work was done the line was incorrectly routed and rubbed wearing a hole in it.

It shows that when a mechanic is significantly cheaper than others that they usually cut corners. Its yet another case of Carenne Support putting profit before safety.