The Ministry of Transport proposes that school buses must have warning lights or registered identification paint colors, with a usage period of no more than 15 years.
According to the fifth draft of the Road Law, which is being consulted by the public, the Ministry of Transport stipulates that school buses must meet technical safety and environmental protection standards. If transporting primary and preschool students, the vehicle must have seat belts or age-appropriate seats. The vehicle's windshield can clearly see inside the vehicle from the outside. The driver of the school bus must have 2 years of experience.
School bus transportation can be organized by the educational institution itself or by a transportation business unit. Schools wishing to organize transportation must notify the local transportation authority, including: Itinerary; pick-up and drop-off points; list of vehicles and drivers; vehicle images and characteristic paint colors. If the above information changes, the school must notify the local transportation authority.
When transporting primary and preschool students, schools must arrange a manager for each vehicle to guide, supervise, maintain order, and ensure safety throughout the trip. If a car with more than 24 seats transports preschool students, there must be two managers. Schools are responsible for training drivers and student managers to understand and properly implement safety procedures.
School buses have priority in traffic flow and regulation.
Students of Long Binh Tan Primary School (Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai) jumped off the school bus on February 15, 2023. Photo : Phuoc Tuan
Regarding the details of the warning lights, a representative of the Department of Vehicle and Driver Management (Vietnam Road Administration) said that the warning lights must be bright, rotatable, mounted on the roof of the vehicle or have the marking "school bus" written on them so that other vehicles can identify them when participating in traffic.
In the US, many states have strict regulations on transporting students by car. In California, school buses must be equipped with a child safety warning system. This is an alarm located at the back of the bus, connected to the engine. When the engine is turned off, the driver must go to the back of the bus to turn off the device, otherwise the alarm will sound to warn everyone. Thus, the driver cannot forget to check the students on the bus. Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin also have similar regulations.
Representatives of the Vehicle Management Department and drivers said that there was no need to install warning sensors at the back of the vehicle because the technology was quite complicated. The regulations in the draft required that before students got off the vehicle, both the driver and the supervisor must check the entire vehicle to see if anyone was still on board.
The drafting agency does not plan to require all school buses to use a common paint color, but they should have distinctive paint colors for easy identification. "This regulation aims to make school buses easily identifiable when participating in traffic, to be given priority in traffic flow, regulation and to ensure better safety," said a representative of the Department of Vehicle and Driver Management.
Explaining the series of new regulations, the Ministry of Transport said that children need to be given priority to ensure their safety when participating in traffic. However, there are currently "no regulations" governing the transportation of students by car, while this service is popular, especially in big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Because there are no regulations, many problems have occurred such as spontaneous services, poor vehicle quality, irresponsible drivers, etc.
The above proposals aim to clearly distinguish school buses from other transport business vehicles, create a strict management mechanism for school buses, improve quality, ensure safety, and attach responsibility to business units and schools in this activity.
Businesses must add some safety equipment, train drivers, and manage students, which increases costs. But if they do not do this, it will not encourage businesses to invest in, renew vehicles, and provide safety equipment for students. It will also be difficult for people to choose safe, good-quality vehicles.
School buses are parked in Helena, Montana, on August 20, 2021. Photo: AP
In recent years, many localities have had many accidents involving school buses. In 2019, a 6-year-old boy at Gateway School (Cau Giay, Hanoi) died after being left in a school bus for 9 hours. In the same year, in Dong Nai, a bus carrying 16 first-graders from school to their homeroom teacher's house had its door blown open, causing three of them to fall onto the road.
In 2021, a school bus in Song Ma district (Son La) was traveling on the road when the door flew open, causing three students to fall onto the road, one of them died. In February 2023, a bus driver in Bien Hoa city (Dong Nai) reversed the bus before all the students got off, causing a third-grade girl to die.
In addition to tightening a series of conditions for school buses, the draft Road Law also proposes many new regulations, such as: Allowing toll collection on all highways invested by the State; motorbikes must have their emissions checked periodically; using the underpass as a parking lot; banning double-decker buses from running on level 5 and 6 mountainous roads; reducing night driving time for transport drivers...
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