School vehicles top list of rash driving mishaps in Mumbai

School bus operators said the institutions should not allow autos and or other modes of transport for students. Representation pic

Rash driving by mostly private vehicles ferrying school children has surfaced as the major issue, shows a recent study on school commute and transport. Among children surveyed in the city, 34 per cent said they witnessed a road crash, while 8 per cent said they themselves were involved in one. Across India, 11,168 children under the age of 18 died due to road crashes in 2019, including 379 in Maharashtra.

Schools were closed in 2020 due to the pandemic. They resumed briefly in January and February 2021, but had to shut again due to the spread of the Delta variant. SaveLIFE Foundation, an NGO working to improve road safety, in collaboration with Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India (MBRDI), conducted the study in 14 cities with high road crash-fatality rates. Among the respondents were parents of Stds I-XII students, and children studying in Std VI-XII.

Most respondents who/ whose children walk to school were from Mumbai and Bengaluru. Mumbai's respondents included 495 children and 560 parents. In Mumbai, 25 per cent of the respondents said there were no cycling paths across the school zone, and 29 per cent reported the absence of footpaths. Further, 93 per cent of the students surveyed walked to their schools.

On road crashes, 11 per cent of the parents surveyed in the city said their child was involved in one, which is higher than the national average of 6 per cent. Among children, 34 per cent said they witnessed a road crash, while 8 per cent said they themselves were involved in one. About 55 per cent of the parents said the school did not take any action to address their concerns over such incidents.

Rash driving major concern

One of the highest reported matters of concern, however, was rash driving. "Overall, 40 per cent of the overall respondents reported that the child/ they sometimes or mostly complain about rash driving. About 32 per cent of the parents and 52 per cent of the children said the private vehicle drivers sometimes or mostly engage in rash driving," the report stated.

School bus operators said the institutions should not allow autos and or other modes of transport for students. "School bus drivers and staff are given regular and updated training sessions by our teams at all the four RTO offices in the Mumbai region," said Anil Garg, president of School Bus Owners' Association (SBOA), Maharashtra. Transport department officials said schools should also follow due diligence while hiring school bus contractors and its staff by verifying their credentials.

Lack of awareness

The findings suggested that not only was the adherence to safety guidelines low for privately organised vehicles, there was low awareness of the same, particularly among parents. According to the study, 18 per cent of the parents using private school buses didn't enquire about the validity of the driver's licence, and 38 per cent did not enquire about the validity of the conductor's licence. Further, about a third of the parents were unaware about the installation of speed governors, 15 per cent didn't know about the presence of a transport manager and 22 per cent mentioned they did not know whether GPS/CCTV cameras were installed. About 12 per cent of the privately arranged transport users reported that they were not aware of the presence of safety tools in the vehicles.

Policy

The report concludes that policies for ensuring safe school transport should be created at both the national and the state level to issue guidelines for schools, parents and road authorities. As the Covid-19 pandemic still looms large, the policies should also include sanitisation and social distancing requirements. The policies should have guidelines for all modes of commute.

"Our findings have emphasised that the right to safe commuting to school is as important as the right to education itself. A comprehensive national and state school transport safety policy can ensure that. While there is a vaccine for Covid-19, our collective action is the vaccine for child deaths on roads," said Piyush Tewari, SaveLIFE Foundation CEO and founder.

"It is our hope that this study will help all critical stakeholders to better appreciate where things stand in India in this context, and further extend our vision of zero casualties to all modes of road transport," said Manu Saale, managing director and CEO, MBRDI.

45% of 560 surveyed parents prefer school bus

>> School-affiliated vehicles: 45%
>> Private vehicles: 25%
>> Self/family driven vehicles: 19%
>> Pedestrian: 8%
>> Other vehicles: 3%