Paralyzed by the news of the death of a year and a half girl in Madrid hit by the school bus, I ask myself, and I ask you, if school buses are safe enough.
When my son was little, the truth is that I didn't feel safe at all with this service and I didn't use it, because I considered that I didn't have enough guarantees, even if it was done by a prestigious company.
I do not trust the safety of school transportation
At that time it was not mandatory for them to use belt and they did not take it, which already, in itself, seemed to me a barbarity since I, my son always put him in his seat, even if he traveled by taxi.
The simple fact that the school told me that because they were not mandatory, they did not hire him (an old-model coach without belts should be cheaper) made me think that they valued my son's safety little.
The current regulations follow without requiring the use of a seat belt on school buses, I will talk about them, because I think they are still clearly insufficient. The only option is to pressure the school to use a service that includes it and that there is enough staff to ensure that children use it correctly.
In addition, at the time of boarding the coach, the children were lined up and cared for by one person, which did not give me peace of mind in any way. There may be accidents and it is impossible to control young children, who have no knowledge of the risks, but one person for so many children seemed insufficient.
It is quite complicated sometimes to watch two or three young children, who could not believe me that a teacher had super powers to prevent anyone from doing a trick and putting herself in a dangerous place.
Finally, at least once in my school and many others told me mothers of other centers, it happened that a little boy fell asleep in the coach in the morning and appeared, at hours, in the garages of the transport company. Has it happened to you or a child you know?
That is, the caregiver did not adequately count the children when they arrived at the center, with the corresponding risk. It may be a human error, but in the case of children I believe that there must be simple control measures that avoid this type of avoidable errors.
Safety regulations for school buses
My impressions of the poor security of school transport I think are not unfounded once I have reviewed the current regulations on this subject. My conclusion is that it is completely insufficient and puts children at risk.
First and serious. Seat belts They are still not mandatory. It is true that any coach registered after 2006 must have them incorporated but the school transport vehicles must have a maximum age of 16 years and at most 10 if they were not engaged in this activity before. That is, it will depend on the school and on the pressure of the parents that a coach is used or not with the built-in belts.
Another issue is the regulations on the attention and care of children in the coach, and I consciously use the word attention and care and not vigilance, because I think that this approach must be taken, just like when we talk about dining rooms.
From what I've found out the requirement of a caregiver It is only mandatory if more than half of the children are under 12 years old. Although it is true that I do not know of any "route" without a caregiver, one person still seems insufficient to monitor that so many children travel safely and tie their belts well.
Many accidents are Trips and falls when getting on and off the bus, so I think it would be necessary for the staff to be sufficient so that no child is left unsupervised in such delicate moments.
The other rules, such as non-slip flooring, safety screens, speed limitation (which should be higher in my opinion), windows and door operation seem acceptable, but as long as the number of adult caregivers is not increased so much when going up and down as in transport, as long as the speed is not limited and the use of retention measures is mandatory, I think school coaches will remain insecure.
I know that there are accidents that cannot be avoided and, in the specific case that made me think about this, the deadly abuse of a baby, I don't know the details, but I still think that it is necessary to improve school bus safety so that these types of accidents are impossible.
