OLDER pupils need more supervision to keep them safe on school buses, a safety group is warning.

Newport-based Belt Up School Kids says that pupils and other road users are at risk from a minority misbehaving on school buses.

School transport is back in the spotlight after the inquest this week into the death of Stuart Cunningham Jones, 12, who died in December 2002 when the double-decker bus taking him home from Cowbridge Comprehensive hit a tree.

A jury returned a verdict of accidental death, but heard how some pupils were clowning around before the collision, and the driver of the public service bus said a boy who had been trying to hit the horn fell over and grabbed the wheel.

While primary school children in Newport, Caerphilly and Torfaen are pledged escorts, older children throughout Gwent travelling on buses under a council contract go without.

Pat Harris, national co-ordinator of Newport-based Belt Up School Kids, said: "It always takes a fatal accident before there's a turning-point. This is that point.

"There's no legal requirement for supervisors, but there is a legal requirement for a safe journey.

"Parents, the education authorities and drivers need to pull together to tackle bad behaviour."

She added that bus companies in Gwent are not paying enough or advertising widely enough for on-board supervisors. She said: "Buses need some form of supervision, whether it's an escort or CCTV.

"We need to know what legislation there is to empower drivers. A pilot can stop and remove a passenger from a plane.

"A school bus driver can do the same, but not all do so. There's no need to chuck a pupil off, but he or she can be refused transport the next day." Phil Anslow, director of Phil Anslow Coaches, in Pontypool, said: "Supervision is a nightmare. Teachers, bus drivers and escorts all have no authority. Escorts just get abused.

"We've got a system of banning troublemaking pupils for a week, and for two weeks or a month if they re-offend. It seems to work."

No Gwent authority supports the three-for-two rule on its contracted buses, which states three children can use a double seat. All authorities pledge 'one child, one seat'.

Newport council plan to put CCTV buses later this year. Blaenau Gwent and Monmouthshire councils use seatbelts on contracted buses for all pupils. Newport and Torfaen do so for primary pupils.