The ongoing saga of the school bus

The school bus has dominated our lives as the accident saga continues !

On the day of the court case, we all went with great trepidation, to find that we were the only people there – the other cars involved hadn’t bothered to even turn up – we assume that this was because they already “ knew “ the result of the case.

The beginning of the accident discussion !

      Unfortunately for them, this meant that the judge was more a little suspicious and thus the policeman currently in charge was dismissed from the case and a new one allocated with a new court date given. This brought about great excitement since naively we thought that at last, justice would be done !

 However, when we arrived for the next court date, although everyone was present, it remained obvious that it had already been decided that we would be the scapegoat and all blame would be placed on us. After a long debate, the driver managed to get out on a 5,000 birr ( approximately £ 200 ) bail and a final date was set.

Up to that point we had believed that the truth would set us free, but suddenly had the realisation that things here aren’t as simple as that so decided to “ waste “ some of our hard earnt resources on hiring a lawyer !

Amazingly, this altered everything ! At the next court date, the blame started to be shifted , with the result that instead of making a snap final decision that it was all our fault , yet another date has been set where witnesses to the accident ( fortunately quite a few – the parents of the pupils waiting for the school bus ) will be called etc.

We still have no idea how much we are going to be charged by the court and how much the lawyer will eventually cost – but at least the driver isn’t in prison and the ultimate result is no longer known ! – so we are grateful for at least these small things !