Fixing the school van problem

Thousands of so-called ‘school vans’ operate throughout the country. It is perhaps the biggest unregulated industry in the transport sector. School vans have sprung up because they offer a very convenient way of sending children to school and bringing them back home. It is a doorstep service, in other words. With both parents working in most households, they usually cannot chaperone the children to and from school even if they have a vehicle. For those who do not have a vehicle anyway, it has become a godsend.

This is a vacuum that the school van operators have filled, with ambiguous results.

A newspaper reported last week that 225 schoolchildren had been killed and 4,100 injured in road accidents last year. Although it is not very clear whether all these accidents occurred while they were travelling to or from school, this is still a disproportionately high number of casualties. Judging by the accidents that have occurred this month alone, this year will be no different if corrective measures are not urgently taken.

The most recent example for school van accidents, reported from Mount Lavinia, is rather shocking. Several schoolboys were seriously injured in this accident which was purely a result of reckless driving by the driver of the ill-fated school van. Evidence suggests that he had actually tried to overtake another school van at high speed. In doing so, he had actually been on the opposite lane of traffic where a private bus was going about its normal business. The right of way belonged to the bus driver.

The result was a nasty collision that could easily have been avoided if the school van driver was a little more careful and more considerate towards his little charges.

Existing laws

The time has come to strictly enforce existing laws and regulations on the school van drivers (and the industry) and enact new ones if they are somehow insufficient. They should no longer be allowed to take the lives of schoolchildren so lightly. A couple of years ago, there was an islandwide program which identified ‘good’ van drivers (in terms of personal and driving conduct) and a sticker was affixed on the front windscreen of their vans to that effect. This program was implemented by the Police together with several media institutions.

There was a good response for this program from school authorities and parents. I stand to be corrected, but this program seems to have been discontinued. In that case, it should be revived or a similar programme initiated.

The competency of school van drivers has been called into question on many occasions. The police must be more pro-active in this regard. They should go to places where school vans are parked and scrutinise the licences and driving records of the drivers. There must be a system to weed out inexperienced and incompetent drivers as well as drivers whose faculties are not in prime condition. There should be a central database on school van drivers and those new to the job should also be required to register. Parents too have a right to demand more information on the drivers.

Apart from ensuring road discipline among school van drivers, the Police have to look into several other factors. We have often seen around 30 children packed like sardines in vans that are designed to carry only around 15 persons. This is not an ideal start to the school day. Overloading in itself can be a cause for accidents, because vehicles are designed and manufactured to handle only a certain load for safety measures to work properly. There should be an immediate crackdown on overloaded school vans.

We believe that the seatbelt regulation must be extended to school vans (at least those having English numbers) – every child must be required to wear the seat belt. This also takes care of the overloading factor.

Mechanical condition

Another factor that worries me is the mechanical condition of most school vans, which leaves a lot to be desired. They are often sorry excuses for vehicles, with worn-out tyres, non-working lights and indicators, defective brakes and malfunctioning exhaust systems. How they pass the emissions test, if at all, baffles me.

In other words, most school vans are not roadworthy. They are accidents waiting to happen. A mechanism must be put in place whereby the authorities can check the roadworthiness of school vans. It might even be possible to give these owners and drivers a rebate if they wish to upgrade to a newer van.

There is also no uniform pricing policy for school van services. The authorities could suggest pricing points for various routes/junctions and route combinations as a guideline for parents. It would vary according to the distance to the given junctions from the students’ homes. This will help eliminate the fleecing of parents by school van operators.

Having said that, the best solution is still the easiest: have more school buses islandwide. The only caveat is that the students will have to walk to the nearest junction or bus halt.

A little walk in the morning can do no harm to anyone. And with a season ticket, parents can save thousands of rupees from the van bill. I have never travelled to school by a school van – they were emerging when I was schooling in the 1980s – but the school bus service was perfect.

If more school buses can be deployed by the SLTB and the private bus operators on more route combinations, parents and schools will have a win-win formula. Some schools, especially international schools, have taken the admirable step of providing their own buses for the students. This is a measure worthy of emulation, at least by the bigger public and private schools.

It was reported that President Mahinda Rajapaksa has called for a report from the IGP on the accident in Mount Lavinia. We hope the Police will thoroughly investigate this accident and recommend ways and means of stemming the tide of school van accidents. A few indisciplined, reckless drivers must not be allowed to ruin the hopes and aspirations of the next generation.