Richard Hills: Auckland Councillor calls out 'anti-EV propaganda' after fatal bus fire

One Auckland councillor has voiced disappointment with recent misinformation concerning the fatal bus collision on Tāmaki Drive.

An electric bus suffered a fatal collision with a car last week and the bus driver was killed in the flames.

North Shore councillor Richard Hills says it was 'shocking' to see the number of posts criticising the EV buses - even though it was proven electric batteries weren't behind the fire. 

"It was a significant fire caused by the car itself, so Fire and Emergency New Zealand have confirmed that. And then Kinetic - obviously who are extremely upset they've lost a colleague - also put out a statement that the batteries were unharmed."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Heller do for ce Allen.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Nine two nine two text number, let me know what
you think standard text fees applied chippies with us after
five Now Auckland Councilor Richard Hills has come out against
what he calls antiev propaganda in the wake of the
recent bus collision on Tarmaki Drive. The investigation is still ongoing,
but you know the one, the one where the bus
was involved in the road was shut for more than
twenty four hours. We now know it was the petrol

(00:26):
vehicle that caused the fire. It wasn't the Lithian batteries
on the electric bus. And Council of Richard Hills is
with us now, Hi, Richard?

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Sure that?

Speaker 3 (00:33):
So you were so worked up about this he hit
the old Facebook, did you?

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah? I mean it was just kind of shocking to
watch it roll out, as these things do. In the moment,
I mean, we were all worried about the poor driver
and his family and obviously massive condolences again to him.
But then all I saw everywhere was told you told
your EV buses, told your EV batteries, and it was
all incorrect.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
So what is the correct story there? Why was the
road because that's a long time, Richard for a road
to be shut out.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
So the road I think the bus was moved within.
So the accident happened on Wednesday night and the bus
was removed on Thursday night. So yes, about twenty six hours.
But that's completely up to Finns and police that whether
there's investigations or other.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
And why did it take so long?

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Yeah, so that that'll be up to them to explain
as far as I no, no, but they haven't obviously
come up with the full what is.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
The misinformation that you were trying to correct?

Speaker 1 (01:34):
So it was just the misinformation about that the bus court.
You know, it was a bus fire. The evs blew up,
the batteries blew up all that kind of stuff. So
it was a significant fire caused by the the car itself.
So Fins have confirmed that, and then Kinetic obviously who

(01:54):
extremely upset they've lost the colleague, also put out a
statement that the batteries were on unharmed, like they didn't
catch fire and didn't create the massive fire that we saw.
It was obviously someone on the other who hit the
bus on the wrong side of the road.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Now my understanding is what people were saying was that
the reason people were blaming the electric vehicle, right, the
bus for the fact that the road was closed for
that long, And that is actually correct, isn't it not?

Speaker 3 (02:22):
That I okay, because what I understand. Let me tell
you what I understand.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
What I understand is that that bus was structurally unsafe,
so they had they took some time to rebuild the
structure inside so they could actually get on. But once
they got on the bus, Richard, what they saw was
battery packs hanging through the roof, and so they were
worried about that. Which vehicles put battery packs in the roof?
Electric vehicles, right, So it's because it was an electric

(02:48):
vehicle with batteries and the roof that were hanging down.
They then had to somehow isolate those batteries. So it
actually was the fact that it was an electric vehicle
that was a problem. But secondly, they saw gas leaking
and they worried that it was the lithium batteries that
were starting to disintegrate. Actually it was an aircom problem.
But again they were treating it differently because it was
an electric vehicle.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Am I wrong?

Speaker 1 (03:10):
I'm not sure. They always have pretty significant investigations when
someone okay.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
Because we have this so good authority. So actually so.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Actually it was because it was an electric vehicle that
the road was closed for more than twenty four hours.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, So I didn't mention anything on my post about
the road being closed. My concern was just the constant
basically told yourselves everywhere about it.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
But it has told you so. It has told you so,
because this cannot happen again, Richard.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
If we have an electric vehicle that has a crash
on Tamaqui, drive, an electric bus it has a crash
on Tomachi.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Grow, you cannot shut a road for twenty four hours.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
It's too long, Yeah, and like we need those answers
from the police and fins when it comes along. But
I guess my post was just about I was disappointed
that someone passed away and all I saw for those twelve,
twenty four or thirty six hours were people just riding
pretty incorrect information that caused the crash, that the bus
caught on fire first, all this kind of stuff when

(04:03):
it was a significant fire from within the petrol engine,
and it was just, yeah, it was just kind of
like we should all wait and see around information before
we jumped straight on online and start putting out stuff
within sort of twelve hours of someone, well instantly hours
after someone passed away. Okay, yeah, that's all. I was

(04:24):
sort of pointing out that it was a shame.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate time.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Richard Hill's Auckland counselor So, if you thought it was
because it was an electric vehicle, it was, but we
did some extensive looking into it for you, it was
because it was an electric vehicle. In the end, Now
mark twenty four hours to shut Tamaki Drive.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
That was a nightmare, willn't it.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
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