Nghe An: Will conduct a general inspection and review of all school buses

In recent times, there have been many unfortunate incidents involving school buses across the country, causing a stir in public opinion. In particular, on November 26 and November 29, 2019, a clip appeared on social networks showing a 16-seat car turning a corner when the rear door suddenly opened, causing 3 students from Phan Boi Chau Primary School, Long Binh Ward, Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai to fall out of the car and onto the road. A 16-seat car was traveling on National Highway 1 when the door opened, causing 2 4th grade male students (Dien Hong Primary School, Bac Son Commune, Trang Bom District, Dong Nai Province) to fall onto the road.

And most recently, on the morning of December 4, car with license plate 61H-2335 carrying about 10 students traveling on DT743 road to An Phu Primary School (An Phu ward, Thuan An town, Binh Duong) suddenly caught fire. Fortunately, the students were evacuated from the car so there were no casualties... This situation shows that the current management of shuttle buses has many potential safety risks.

School bus at Quang Son Primary School (Do Luong).

On December 2, 2019, in order to enhance the effectiveness of managing school buses, contributing to ensuring traffic order and safety in the area, Nghe An Provincial Police issued Official Dispatch No. 4700/CAT. Accordingly, the leaders of Nghe An Provincial Police requested the police of units and localities to conduct a general inspection and review of all cars used to transport students in the management area (license plate, vehicle owner, qualified and unqualified numbers according to the provisions of law), absolutely not allowing cases of vehicles operating to transport students without being aware. Schools that provide car transportation services for students must check and sign a commitment to use qualified school buses in terms of drivers, technical safety, compliance with procedures and locations for student transportation, and at the same time require the suspension of operations and handling according to law for school buses that do not meet technical standards or do not meet the conditions for car transportation business as prescribed...

The Provincial Police will coordinate with the Traffic Inspectorate and relevant agencies to strengthen solutions for managing transportation services related to school buses; regularly inspect, promptly detect, and strictly handle violations, focusing on errors such as: stopping and parking in violation of regulations, not having a badge, carrying more people than the prescribed number, not closing the door to get on and off while the vehicle is running, expired registration... Coordinate to survey and propose solutions to unreasonable traffic organization in the school gate area; increase the deployment of forces to guide stopping, parking, and traffic, and clear traffic congestion in front of the school gate when picking up and dropping off students.

Traffic police check the technical standards of a school bus.

In Nghe An province, after checking, the whole province currently has 49 school buses in operation, of which 46 meet technical standards; although there have been no serious incidents, in some localities, the current situation of school buses still has many shortcomings, chaotic operations such as: modifying vehicles to carry more than the prescribed number, stopping and parking in violation of regulations, no badges, expired registration...

In recent times, the police force and local authorities, together with schools, have also increased the supervision of school buses. However, because the buses are mostly quite old and spontaneous, they do not comply with regulations.