Photo: supplied via RNZBus company Ritchies has pleaded guilty to a health and safety charge laid over the 2016 Christmas Eve bus crash near Gisborne that left three people dead. The bus was carrying members of a school brass band that was on a four-week fundraising tour from Tonga. The band was on its way to Gisborne to perform at a church on Christmas Day, when the bus plunged down a steep bank. Talakai Aholelei who was driving the bus which crashed near Gisborne on Christmas Eve. He pleaded guilty to three charges of careless driving causing death and 27 charges of careless driving causing injury.

Source: Otago Daily Times April 14, 2019 22:30 UTC