THE TRIAL of two companies facing charges arising out of a health and safety investigation into a Navan school bus crash is to go ahead on May 21st.
The new date was given following concerns raised by the families of the victims when it was announced last week that it would be January before the case would come to trial.
The Court Service intervened last Friday after Circuit Criminal Court judge Patricia Ryan said there was no courtroom available for the trial.
Five schoolgirls, Lisa Callan (15), Claire McCluskey (18), Deirdre Scanlon (17), Amy McCabe (15) and Sinead Ledwidge (15), were killed and 43 others injured when a school bus overturned on the Kentstown Road outside Navan on May 23rd, 2005.
An earlier trial at Trim Circuit Court collapsed in March last year when it was alleged that one of the jurors had attended the funeral of a schoolgirl who had been killed in a crash. The juror denied being at the service.
Judge Martin Nolan, sitting yesterday at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, said he had spoken to the president of the court, Judge Matthew Deery, over the weekend, who agreed that the trial should be given an earlier date. He offered March 31st and May 21st.
The two companies involved are Keltank Ltd, of Balbriggan, Co Dublin, which serviced the bus, and McArdle's Test Centre in Dundalk, Co Louth, which tested it before the accident.
Keltank faces two charges under the Health and Safety Act 1989 that it failed to undertake necessary maintenance and repair of the anti-lock braking system (ABS) on May 6th, 2005. The accident happened almost three weeks later.
McArdle's Test Centre faces two charges that it failed to note the ABS light in the school bus was not operational when it tested the bus on March 15th, 2005.
Counsel for Keltank, Derek Kenneally SC, said his client had been subjected to prejudicial coverage which sought to link the company to the bus crash. The charges did not relate directly to the bus crash but to work carried out several weeks previous to it.
Mr Kenneally sought a date in July, saying there needed to be a "fade factor" as far as coverage of the case to date was concerned.
However, counsel for the State Brendan Grehan said it would be "impossible to divorce" the fact that the charges arose out of an inspection of the bus following the crash. If either party wished to bring a motion relating to the media coverage or other aspects of the case, they should do so before the end of the month.
The case will now be the first listed on the trial list at the beginning of the Easter sitting term.
