Society does not need another Seven Dangerous Days to highlight the peak time for road accidents in Thailand during the national long weekend. It sadly happens too often. The public has long witnessed mayhem on the roads.
The New Year road safety campaign begins on Thursday. Just days ahead of that campaign, a 12-seat school minivan careered off Tha Ngam-Poeng Kair Highway 1296 in Wat Bot district in Phitsanulok province and crashed at 7am yesterday. A 16-year-old girl was killed, and eight younger students were injured.
The only one uninjured was the driver, who blamed a wheel malfunction. This accident is an example of the daily tragedies on Thai roads. On average, about 20,000 lose their lives a year on the roads, according to the World Health Organization's 2018 global assessment, which ranked Thailand as the ninth country with the highest road traffic death rate, with 32.7 deaths per 100,000 population; five of these 32.7 deaths are children aged between 11-14.
What is worrying is the rate of road accidents involving school students. According to the Child Safety Promotion and Prevention Research Center at Ramathibodi Hospital, last year, 764 children died in road accidents. These students, in the 11-14-year-old age bracket, died as they travelled in cars and public buses -- particularly school buses, the main transport for 50% of school children nationwide.
Most school buses are provided by private businesses. Most companies use 12-seat minivans or mini-buses for the purpose. But there are currently minimal requirements for these school buses.
The Transport Ministry's regulations permit regular drivers to drive school buses as long as they have held a driver's licence for more than three years. Each school bus must only have 12 seats and needs a conductor aged over 18. It must have a fire extinguisher and equipment to break window panes in cases of emergency. School buses cannot use tinted film on windows and must also provide prominent school bus signs.
But there are calls from parents and civic groups for better school-bus services, which include the vans being installed with GPS systems and that there be tighter safety requirements such as special drivers' licences or more stringent auditing. These demands, however, are not met.
With the current minimal requirements, accidents take place. Before the accident yesterday, a similar incident occurred in Nan province in May when a school mini-van drove into a canal alongside a road, injuring 10 young students. Luckily, there were no fatalities in that crash, yet it did spur civic groups to submit five proposals to the Education Minister, Trinuch Thienthong.
Most of these measures ask the ministry to make the safety of school buses a national priority with specific policies and plans, such as schools themselves playing a greater role in running and overseeing the safety of school buses. One measure calls for a provincial or local committee comprising members of government, school, local administration and parental groups to carry out safety audits.
One of the proposals also demands the Ministry of Education allocates a budget for transport costs for school-bus services. This financial policy deserves a chance. Students are our future, and the last thing that should happen is they are victims of a traffic accident, let alone in a school bus which should be one of the safest modes of transport in the world.
