A trip to the art gallery quickly turned sour for a group of Arataki Primary School students when their bus collided with a van in Mount Maunganui, leaving eight people injured.
A police spokeswoman said the crash happened on Hewletts Rd about 9.20am yesterday and there were 41 children onboard the bus.
A reporter on the scene said the front of the bus had been smashed, its windscreen was cracked, and children could be seen on board.
According to the St John Twitter page, four ambulances went to the scene and eight people were injured, three with moderate injuries and five with minor injuries.
Arataki Primary School principal Shelley Blakey said the students on board were aged between 8 and 10 and were headed on a school trip to the art gallery.
A short debrief followed, where hot drinks were dished out and the children "got a bit of a cuddle".
Those who were able returned to class, she said.
Blakey said school staff did well by following procedure throughout the ordeal, while praising the emergency service workers in the way they handled the large number of children on board.
"They were absolutely incredible."
When asked whether she had concerns around the safety of the bus lane on Hewletts Rd, Blakey said she did not think it was particularly unsafe and she was confident the bus driver was driving sensibly.
"There's a bigger question around safety on buses, full stop."
Arataki Primary School principal Shelley Blakey. Photo / File
She said the school had clear safety guidelines around bus trips. This included insisting each child had their own seat and ensuring children were "impeccably" behaved so that drivers were not distracted.
"We can't control the traffic or other drivers. There's only so much we can do."
Chloe Adair from Hirepool was standing in the yard when the crash happened.
"The van involved was coming to get a piece of equipment. I raced over to the driver and he was pretty terrified."
Transport advocacy group Greater Tauranga spokeswoman Heidi Hughes said she passed the aftermath of yesterday's crash.
Hughes said it was the second she had recently seen - around three weeks ago she said she saw a crash involving a car pulling out on to Hewletts Rd.
She suggested drivers might not be used to sharing the bus lane due to buses intermittently drove down Hewletts Rd.
She said bolder road marking, as found in other cities, would clearly distinguish the lane as for buses only.
"We need a red paint strip covering the whole bus lane, right down Hewletts Rd."
The Bay of Plenty Regional Council did not know how many of their buses had been involved in a crash on Hewletts Rd since December 2018 and directed the Bay of Plenty Times to police.
