In an effort to address the challenge of drivers transporting schoolchildren being involved in fatal traffic accidents, Transport Minister Barbara Creecy has advocated for strengthening legislation to guarantee that scholar transport drivers are certified in advanced and defensive driving.
Addressing members of the media on Thursday during a scholar transport operation in Lenasia, south of Johannesburg, the minister said driver behaviour plays a significant role in road crashes.
Scholar vehicles to be marked
Furthermore, she proposed that all scholar transport vehicles be clearly marked. She said the Department of Education and the Department of Transport must keep a separate database of scholar transport vehicles.
The operation in Lenasia was also meant to validate the required permits for scholar transport drivers. It also aimed to assess the roadworthiness of vehicles.
This comes after 12 schoolchildren died in an accident while travelling to school in the Vaal on Monday. The number of fatalities has been revised to 14, after two more victims succumbed to their injuries in hospital.
“In terms of the National Land Transport Regulations, every private vehicle must have a contract between the operator and the school. They must carry a certified copy of the contract. The document recognises that the vehicle is transporting learners to a particular school. That contract must be kept in the vehicle.
“The second requirement of the existing law is that the driver must have a special identity document. One that identifies him or her as a scholar transport service provider. And that document must have the name of the driver and the identity number of the driver. Also the name of the operator and a code indicating the type of vehicle that is being used,” Creecy said.
Strict supervision
Furthermore, a teacher must supervise a transport vehicle that provides services to pre-primary children or primary school children.
“We need to do more in terms of operations to enforce the existing regulations. Today’s operation, carried out by the National Traffic Department, is intended to target what we call private scholar transport vehicles.
“These are not vehicles that are procured by the Department of Education for Scholar Transport. They are vehicles that parents themselves have procured so that their children can reach different schools,” she said.
According to Creecy, the department is in discussion with the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco). The agenda is the introduction of tracking devices in vehicles. And in due course, the introduction of dashcams.
“Clearly, this is an issue that can be implemented over time. Since it has economic implications for the operators themselves. But it is something that we would like to work toward as we govern driver behaviour in the trucking business. We should be able to control driver behaviour. Not only in the taxi sector as a whole, but also in the student transportation industry,” she said.
Public urged to report reckless driving
Gauteng MEC for Roads and Transport, Kedibone Diale-Tlabela, encouraged the public to report reckless driving. They can do so by using the National Traffic Call Centre (NTCC) – 0861 400 800.
“Please help us save lives. We have a hotline to report reckless driving and overloading of children in scholar transport. You can also assist us by taking videos. Taking registration numbers and putting them on our social media platforms. Also Facebook, Twitter and the Department of Road and Transport.
“We are working closely with municipalities and law enforcement agencies. We want to ensure that we eradicate lawlessness. But we also, importantly, want to save lives,” Diale-Tlabela said.
- SAnews.gov.za
