Auckland buses forge on through flooded streets. Video / Supplied
About 20 Auckland Transport buses have been flood-damaged and are being assessed while the transport board hails drivers’ bravery, but it has refused to say what instructions were given to drivers when they encountered flooded roads.
It comes after dramatic photographs and videos showed bus drivers attempting to drive throughwaterlogged streets, often several feet high and where muddy water can be seen entering the passenger cab and swamping those inside.
Video this morning shows one bus ploughing through a flooded Beachcroft Ave in Onehunga with water lapping halfway up the bus, creating a wake that nearly covered an already partially submerged car nearby.
Other footage from last Friday shows a bus floating in the water and being swept away by the torrent at Sunnynook on the North Shore.
Some called one bus driver “crazy” for taking passengers through one of the areas worst hit by this morning’s deluge.
A bus stuck in floodwater on Auckland's Great North Rd. Photo / Supplied
Passengers can be seen standing inside the bus to escape water flowing through as the driver sits barely above the level of the wave pushed out by his near-amphibious vehicle.
Incredulous social media users asked why the driver chose to risk entering the water.
“Why was that bus driver driving into that water?” one asked. “All that driver has done is put all the passengers’ lives at risk.”
“That bus driver should be fired,” another wrote. “Putting people at risk driving through that flooded piece of road. Crazy.”
Commuters exit a bus caught in flooding on Auckland's Northern motorway. Photo / Supplied
A spokesperson for Auckland Transport said bus drivers were taught to consider safety first: “The safety of customers is always their top priority in any situation.
“A lot of drivers were caught on Friday in unprecedented circumstances and did the best they could, given their situation at the time, to ensure passenger safety.”
AT thanked its drivers for “their bravery, resilience, and hard work”.
However, when asked what drivers were instructed to do if they encountered the massive floodwaters the local transport board did not go into detail.
“Since this weather event started, they have been put into extraordinary circumstances that they haven’t encountered before,” AT said.
“The latest advice to bus operators was sent at 7.30pm on Friday night - as soon as the seriousness of the weather became apparent.”
AT’s executive general manager Safety Stacey van der Putten said: “We are telling our operators to prioritise safety and not drive through floodwaters.
“This was an exceptional situation, which was changing rapidly, and our bus drivers made the best of the circumstances,” she said.
