School buses must be equipped with alarms to avoid leaving children on the bus.

Over the past few days, people across the country have been shocked and heartbroken by the news of a 5-year-old boy in Thai Binh who was left on a school bus for 11 hours in the hot sun, leading to his death. This is not the first time a child has been left on a school bus. Five years ago, a student at Gateway International School in Hanoi died in a similar manner.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Minh Hieu, Hanoi University of Transport, said that school buses are currently considered a type of service vehicle operating on the basis of a transport contract signed between the school and a transport company. The vehicles used are regular passenger vehicles, not specialized school buses like in foreign countries. Worryingly, some companies even use old, dilapidated vehicles that were once used to transport tourists and fixed inter-provincial routes to transport students, posing a great risk of safety.

Currently, Vietnam has no regulations on child safety equipment and safe positions for children in cars. Many parents still let their children sit in the front seat or stand in the car, reaching out the window, sticking their heads out the sunroof...

It is known that the Ministry of Transport has developed, completed and is soliciting comments on the draft revised and supplemented National Technical Regulation on Technical Safety and Environmental Protection (ATKT & BVMT) for automobiles. In this draft, the Ministry of Transport proposes separate ATKT & BVMT regulations for school buses.

There must be a warning system.

Specifically, the draft regulation stipulates that school buses must be equipped with devices to monitor the entire passenger area through interior rearview mirrors and an interior camera surveillance system to monitor the driver's behavior, the behavior of student guardians, and the behavior of students on the bus.

There is an alarm system, emergency sound or direct contact to the driver or student manager to warn when a student is left on the vehicle, for no more than 15 minutes.

The draft regulation also stipulates that the vehicle must have a uniform dark yellow color covering the outside of the vehicle body. The front and sides of the vehicle above the windows must have signs identifying it as a school bus.

Vehicles must have signs, stop signs, and warning signs that other vehicles are not allowed to pass when the vehicle is parked at the bus stop to pick up or drop off students. At the same time, it must be equipped with a speed limiter that does not exceed 80km/h.

The seats must be equipped with two-point seat belts; at least one first aid kit and a fire extinguisher must be installed in the vehicle; There must be an external camera to monitor the situation outside the door.

According to the drafting committee, specifying a common color helps increase recognition and distinction from other types of vehicles, so that traffic participants know and proactively give way when traveling with school buses.

Dr. Khuong Kim Tao, former Deputy Chief of Office of the National Traffic Safety Committee, also said that it is best to have a separate paint color regulation, or even aim for a common design to create a unique feature for school buses.

From there, it is also necessary to study mechanisms and policies to prioritize this type of vehicle, for example, it is possible to prioritize the arrangement of pick-up/drop-off stops near school gates, prioritize lanes when moving...

Proposal to add child safety equipment

Also related to ensuring the safety of children when participating in traffic, according to the report of the National Traffic Safety Committee, there are 6.3 million registered cars in Vietnam, the Vietnamese car market grows by about 500 thousand new cars each year. This means that the number of children participating in traffic will increase, which raises the issue of regulations related to the safety of children in cars.

Preliminary assessment of the National Traffic Safety Committee shows that there are about 1,800-2,000 traffic accidents involving children in a year, of which about 600-700 cases involve cars with children. The rate of traffic accident deaths in children in Vietnam: 5-14 years old is 1.9/100,000 children; 0-4 years old is 1.4/100,000 children.

The Center for Health Consulting and Community Development - CHD (under the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations) believes that if regulations on the use of safety devices and safe seating positions for children are legalized and effectively applied in the Law on Road Traffic Safety, it can reduce up to 400-500 cases of children being seriously injured or children dying in cars each year in Vietnam.

This agency recommends: To further improve the Law on Road Traffic Safety, it is necessary to continue to specify the principles of ensuring safety for children in road traffic.

In particular, in Article 3, it is proposed to add the phrase "Child safety equipment in cars is a cradle, seat, or booster cushion to limit the possibility of the child's body being displaced in the event of a collision or sudden deceleration of the vehicle".

Clause 3, Article 11, proposes to add the content "children under 10 years old and under 1.35 meters tall must not sit in the same row with the driver, except for vehicles with only one row of seats" and remove the content "without an adult sitting with them".

Explaining the proposal that "children under 10 years old and under 1.35 meters tall should not sit in the same row as the driver", CHD said: The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that all children should sit in the back seat of a car. At the same time, when using safety equipment, the risk of injury to children in the back seat is reduced by 14% compared to children in the front seat.

In addition, according to data from the 2023 traffic safety survey, 115 countries have laws prohibiting children from sitting in the front seat, of which 70 countries completely prohibit it and 45 countries prohibit it but allow it if there is a child safety device in the car.

Regarding the proposal to remove the content "without an adult sitting with" for children transported in cars and on motorbikes in the draft Law, CHD believes that this phrase will cause misunderstanding that seat belts/safety equipment will not be needed if an adult is sitting with the child. In the event of a collision, inertia and unexpected situations may cause adults to be unable to hold the child tightly, leading to the child being thrown from the seat, impacted and seriously injured.

The research team of Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Viet Cuong, University of Public Health, has assessed the impact of the amendment of the regulation, showing that people responded very positively to this proposal. Although there is no regulation yet, many people have automatically applied it. In a number of nationwide public opinion polls from 2020 to 2023, the rate of support for the proposal was up to 85%.

(Chinhphu.vn)

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