School vehicles top list of rash driving mishaps in Mumbai

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 11168 children under the age of 18 died due to road crashes in 2019 including 379 in MaharashtraSchools 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 MercedesBenz Research and Development India MBRDI conducted the study in 14 cities with high road crashfatality rates Among the respondents were parents of Stds IXII students and children studying in Std VIXIIMost respondents who whose children walk to school were from Mumbai and Bengaluru Mumbais 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 schoolsOn 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 incidentsRash driving major concernOne of the highest reported matters of concern however was rash driving ldquoOverall 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 drivingrdquo the report statedSchool bus operators said the institutions should not allow autos and or other modes of transport for students ldquoSchool bus drivers and staff are given regular and updated training sessions by our teams at all the four RTO offices in the Mumbai regionrdquo 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 credentialsLack of awarenessThe 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 didnt enquire about the validity of the driverrsquos licence and 38 per cent did not enquire about the validity of the conductorrsquos licence Further about a third of the parents were unaware about the installation of speed governors 15 per cent didnt know about the presence of a transport manager and 22 per cent mentioned they did not know whether GPSCCTV 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 vehiclesPolicyThe 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 Covid19 pandemic still looms large the policies should also include sanitisation and social distancing requirements The policies should have guidelines for all modes of commuteldquoOur 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 Covid19 our collective action is the vaccine for child deaths on roads said Piyush Tewari SaveLIFE Foundation CEO and founderldquoIt 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 transportrdquo said Manu Saale managing director and CEO MBRDI4537 of 560 surveyed parents prefer school busgtgt Schoolaffiliated vehicles 4537gtgt Private vehicles 2537gtgt Selffamily driven vehicles 1937gtgt Pedestrian 837gtgt Other vehicles 337