Buses are still the safest way to travel, claimed Public Transportation Board director Mr. Herman Basden on Friday in the aftermath of a potentially tragic accident involving a public bus that careened into a wall.

The PTB, which celebrates its 50th birthday next year, boasts it has been fatality-free.

"We clock up three million miles a year and there has been not one fatality in 50 years,'' Mr. Basden said. "The buses are the only vehicles in Bermuda that have never had a fatality.

"You are safer in a bus than in anything else on the road,'' he said. His comments came following Thursday's late afternoon accident during which a bus loaded with more than 20 passengers skidded on a wet road and careened into a wall bordering the Coral Beach Club property in Paget.

Three passengers, including the driver and an eight-month pregnant woman, were taken to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital suffering cuts and bruises, but they were all discharged the same day.

The bus was lifted back onto the road Friday and impounded by Police. It will undergo examinations to determine if the accident was mechanically related.

Mr. Basden repeated the PTB would be launching its own inquiry into the cause of the accident. However, the driver of the bus had already been "completely exonerated from blame''.

"He did the best he could in the circumstances,'' Mr. Basden said. Mr. Basden said he reached the conclusion after speaking with the driver and hearing that the passengers involved were satisfied the driver had been driving carefully and within the speed limit.

"He told me that after he negotiated the bend and applied his brakes, the impression he had was that he had no steering control,'' Mr. Basden said.

Mr. Basden offered his own explanation for the accident. The condition was known as "aqua-planing'' meaning that buses operating in heavy rain momentarily lost adhesion and were likely to slide.

The total load including the weight of the bus would have been about eight tons, he said.

On the safety of the stretch of road itself which combines a steep hill with a sharp bend, Mr. Basden called it a "double whammy'' for bus operators. Since the accident, another driver had complained the bend made her nervous.

That bend would be the subject of a meeting between the Permanent Secretary of the Department of Works and Engineering and himself.

Both the PTB and the Police Department praised the swiftness and efficiency of rescue services in helping passengers to safety.

Coincidentally, an off-duty bus inspector, fireman, policeman and doctor were all travelling in the area at the time of the accident and arrived just seconds after, Mr. Basden said.