Transport Minister Phil Twyford has asked officials to look into three recent crashes in two weeks which all involved the same make of bus.
Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller.
Phil Twyford has asked the Ministry of Transport and the Transport Agency to investigate three Mitsubishi Fuso bus crashes, which left two people dead and many others injured.
Allan Campbell, 69, from Taranaki died on Wednesday when his bus rolled off State Highway 3 at Inglewood.
An 11-year-old girl was also killed last month when the same type of bus rolled on the Turoa skifield road, and another Mitsubishi Fuso bus crashed in Manawatū last week.
"These bus crashes are a real cause for concern," Mr Twyford said.
"My thoughts are with the families. There has been loss of life and a lot of people have gone to hospital.
"As always with these kinds of things, we need to learn the lessons.
"I've asked [officials] ... to look at these three incidents and first, tell me whether or not the certificate of fitness testing has been implemented with sufficient rigour.
"Secondly, I want them to look at all three cases and see whether there are any common elements that we can learn from."
Mr Twyford would not be drawn into whether the make of bus was unsafe.
"I'm not going to be judge and jury here. I just want to see the facts," he said.
"I can understand why people would jump to conclusions based on the fact that the three incidents have involved buses of the same type, but again, there may be other factors at play here so I'm going to let the officials do their job."