A dramatic school bus blaze near Inchture was caused by an engine fault, it has finally been revealed a full year after the incident.
And Stagecoach confirmed that the transport operator has added new measures to reduce future risks despite claims the fault “could not have been predicted”.
The double decker carrying pupils to Perth High School caught on fire during morning rush hour on the A90 route on March 24, 2022.
The quick-thinking driver stopped the vehicle and evacuated the children to safety before fire crews arrived to tackle the inferno.
Videos and pictures show the Stagecoach bus ablaze at the side of the road, with the smoke billowing across the carriageway visible for miles around.
Firefighters remained at the scene for a number of hours to bring the flames under control, with traffic held to a standstill in both directions.
The bus was destroyed by the fire but thankfully no one was injured.
The council conducted a follow-up investigation with Stagecoach about the incident to try and establish the cause.
However, up until Thursday last week no findings had been published.
A letter by Carse of Gowrie councillor Alasdair Bailey urged managing director of Stagecoach East Scotland Douglas Robertson for answers.
On Wednesday, Cllr Bailey wrote: “Almost a year ago, one of Stagecoach’s school contract buses caught fire and was destroyed on the A90. Fortunately, nobody was hurt.
“With a full year having passed, I am writing to ask that you release the findings of the investigation that we were assured your company was going to carry out in the aftermath of that incident.
“You will no doubt be aware that had this incident instead involved a train, an aircraft, or a boat then the law would require that a full statutory investigation be carried out by a government body (RAIB, AAIB or MAIB) and that the results of that report would be made public as a matter of course.
“I therefore think it’s unfortunate that the public are not yet aware of the full circumstances of the incident and, most importantly, the ways in which your company can reduce the risk of the same happening again.
“It is vitally important that parents and children have full confidence in the safety of school transport and one way that we can achieve that is by releasing the findings of your incident report into the public domain as soon as practically possible.”
In response Stagecoach revealed a “component failure” within the engine caused “secondary damage”.
The secondary damage combusted, resulting in the vehicle catching fire.
The bus operator, headquartered on Dunkeld Road, added the fault “could not have been predicted”.
It comes after another Stagecoach bus burst into flames on a stretch of the A923 between Coupar Angus and Dundee in December, however no one was injured.
A Stagecoach East Scotland spokesperson responded: “Thermal incidents of varying natures can affect any vehicle type, including cars, vans and heavy goods vehicles, as well as buses regardless of the operator involved.
“In the context of the millions of miles operated by buses across the UK every day, incidents in the sector are relatively rare.
“Nevertheless, as a responsible company, we are committed to working openly and constructively with the DVSA, vehicle manufacturers, other operators and the sector trade bodies, to help better understand the root causes of any incidents and reduce their occurrence.
“Our investigation has now concluded and confirmed that the incident was due to component failure which in turn caused secondary damage.
“This secondary damage combusted resulting in the vehicle catching fire. The component failure could not have been predicted.
“In addition to reviewing all of our procedures around ongoing maintenance for this type of engine we now have added measures in place to reduce the risk of this happening again including working with the manufacture to reduce the operational stress on these engines.”
Managing director of Stagecoach East Scotland Douglas Robertson added: “The safety of our customers, our employees and other road users is our absolute priority.
“We are committed to the safety of those we carry daily across the country and remain grateful for the actions of our driver during this incident.”
Following the response, Cllr Bailey concluded: “I’m pleased that Stagecoach have responded to my calls for transparency by sharing detail of the cause of this incident and that will give a lot of reassurance that the same can’t happen again.”
