How safe is your child?
How safe is the transport your child is using to get to and from school?
ALBERTON- In light of the recent accidents in which so many school children have died, this is a very valid question. One every parent should be asking themselves.
According to the owner of a legitimate transport company, he regularly sees 32 plus school children spilling out of Toyota mini vans at various schools in the South of Johannesburg. He has confronted some of these drivers, saying that their dangerous behaviour is placing all the transport companies in a bad light. Some of these drivers become very aggressive when confronted. The owner receives phone calls from parents asking to pick up their child before completing documentation or inspecting the vehicles. Parents don’t meet him and his drivers, check if they have professional driver’s permits and if the company is a registered concern. These parents or guardians know nothing about the transport company and yet entrust them with their children’s lives. Parents and guardians should take responsibility for the safety of their children, and this is the first step to reducing these incidents.
A headmaster of a Johannesburg South school says that one of the ways to protect school children is to shorten the distances they have to travel on a daily basis. Many young children are being picked up at 5 in the morning and dropped off late in the afternoon, causing stress, fatigue and influencing their academic performance.
He suggests children should attend schools close to home as the government stipulates but many parents go to great lengths to falsify water and light statements or other documentation to get their child into a specific school, hence the problem of children being “bussed” in from outlying areas. This specific school has contacted the Johannesburg traffic department, requesting help in this regard, but little help has been forthcoming. They even forward the registration numbers of the offenders whether it is transport companies, taxis or parents driving recklessly. The taxi drivers are never confronted and there are no consequences for their actions.
The question we have to ask is, can we blame parents who want their children to attend what they perceive to be “better” schools? Should children be disadvantaged because of the areas they live in? Shouldn’t the government be providing more school transport to ensure that these children arrive at their destinations? And more to the point; why not support and improve the level of education in the township schools, and in the process lessen the need for parents to transport children up to 80 kilometres a day?
At the third Africa Road Safety Seminar in Cape Town in August 2014, the Transport Minister, Dipuo Peters said her department is in the process of finalising a new policy on scholar transport, aimed at improving road safety for vulnerable pupils. Numerous road safety programmes such as junior traffic training centres and scholar patrol have been implemented by the department to educate and assist children. They have also supplied safety gear for disadvantaged children cycling to school.
Minister Peters said South Africa remains committed to reducing road deaths by the year 2020.
We all agree that parents have to protect their children by investigating who is transporting them to school but as a wise headmaster says, “We all have to work together to solve this problem”.
Things to look out for in a transport company:
• Ask if the transport company is registered to transport passengers and ask to see proof.
• Do the drivers have professional driver’s permits, which ensure that they have been trained and assessed?
• Are the drivers qualified to administer CPR?
• How many children are they legally allowed to transport, and ask for a list of parents to ensure that this limit is indeed adhered to?
• Ask to see the service record of the vehicle your child will be travelling in, and double check whether it is a registered mechanic.
• Check on the condition of the vehicle.
• Can you meet the owner and the driver beforehand, and does the company have documentation for you to complete?
