20 Sep 2019

Ritchies fined $750,000 after fatal Gisborne bus crash

From Checkpoint, 5:40 pm on 20 September 2019

The Ritchies bus company has been fined and ordered to pay $750,000 in reparations to the families of those killed and injured in the 2016 Christmas Eve bus crash.

The bus was carrying 53 people from a Tongan college brass band when it plunged 30 metres down a bank near Gisborne.

Ritchies had earlier pleaded guilty to a charge laid by Worksafe of failing to ensure people's health and safety was not put at risk.

RNZ reporter Sarah Robson was at the sentencing in Waitakere District Court on Friday morning.