Tauranga's library bus remains out of action two weeks after a car slammed into the bus on a bend near the Faith Bible College in Welcome Bay.

The driver of the red Holden Astra appeared to lose control on a bend and slammed the vehicle into the front of the library bus, killing 19-year-old passenger Karanbir Singh.

Geoff Bissmire collecting the last of the mobile library books.

The crash has put the library bus off the road for an indefinite period.

'We are waiting to see how long it will take to get the parts - the parts will be the time factor,” says Tauranga City Libraries manger Jill Best.

The parts include a new windscreen. Jill is unsure what other components were damaged in the impact.

'For the last two weeks we have notified all the institutions; schools, kindys and rest homes,” she adds.

'For the street stops where we have had no-one to notify, we have sent a car round to collect returns and explain to people what happened.

'Monday will be the last day we do that because we assume after that most people now know. After that I'm afraid people will just have to find their own way to our other libraries until such time as we can get the mobile back on the road.”

Assistant mobile librarian Geoff Bissmire says the library car is now just picking up books. Normally the mobile library attracts 15-16 people at the Victory Street stop in Welcome Bay.

Geoff says: 'We probably see a few more during the school term, as the kids come down from Selwyn Ridge school. But they know by now.”

He says the Tauranga mobile library service has received messages of support from mobile libraries across New Zealand and Australia.

There was a mobile library conference at Wairakei a few years back and they made a lot of contacts, says Geoff.

The mobile library normally closes down in mid-December for the Christmas-New Year period. Before the accident, the mobile library was booked to come off the road in January for re-painting, says Jill.

'We don't know how that will be affected at this stage with the time frame,” she says.

The Mobile Library bus has been part of the city libraries service since it was purchased in 1999, replacing an earlier model.

Since then the mobile library's main problems have been political, but the city councillors' moves to remove it on budgetary grounds have been overturned by public support for the service.