A Stagecoach bus driver who fatally ran over a schoolboy passenger has lost an appeal to overturn his convictions.
Kereopa Te Waru Puru was found guilty in the Auckland District Court in April, of careless driving causing death and failing to stop after an accident.
North Shore schoolboy Matthew Taylor was crushed
under the wheel of Puru's "bendy" bus in May last year when the 12-year-old's backpack became caught in the rear doors as he left the bus.
Puru, who was sentenced to four months periodic detention and disqualified from driving for one year, yesterday asked the Court of Appeal to quash his convictions.
Lawyer Anthony Rogers said Puru had been wrongfully convicted of failing to stop because he had not known for certain there had been an accident.
Child passengers testified at Puru's trial to having screamed out when Matthew was hit, but some suggested the driver might not have heard or understood them.
"Although he was getting information he didn't believe it," Mr Rogers said. "It was at odds with his perception of the situation."
That Puru had 60 or 70 other children on board also meant he had a reasonable excuse for not stopping, Mr Rogers argued.
But when convicting Puru, Judge Jeremy Doogue said the 52-year-old had known there had been an accident by the time he reached the Browns Bay shops at Clyde Rd and should have stopped.
Justices Edmund Thomas, Noel Anderson and Grant Hammond yesterday agreed, saying the appeal was "totally without substance". That Puru was carrying other child passengers did not prevent him from securing the bus and returning to check on Matthew or radioing for help.
On Puru's conviction for careless driving causing death, Mr Rogers said the bus' mirrors would have provided the driver with an inadequate view of Matthew leaving the bus.
A video reconstruction of what Puru would have seen if a child was caught in the door was played in court. But the justices ruled that if he had properly checked the mirrors after shutting the doors he would have seen Matthew.
After the decision, delivered in the High Court at Auckland, Debbie and Lex Taylor said the appeal showed how unremorseful Puru was for their son's death.
"He's gone down that track of denial the whole way," Mr Taylor said.
Puru did not return to court yesterday to hear the justices' decision.
