School bus 'crammed' with students

Students sitting in... trunk of car

At 10:30 a.m. on December 5, at the gate of Lai Cach Primary School (Cam Giang), students rushed out of the school gate after class. About a dozen cars of all kinds, from 7 seats, 16 seats, 29 seats, including cars with white and yellow license plates... were waiting at the gate. Some cars were old, with faded paint. Some cars had their floor designs changed, with plastic seats added. Some cars had black windows, making it difficult for people outside to see inside.

Groups of students walked out of the school gate and hurriedly got on the bus. The bus with the license plate 51F-337.42 startled us because behind the half-closed trunk door were many students sitting inside. A man prevented the reporter from filming and approaching the students inside the bus.

Similarly, at the gate of Tu Minh Primary School (Hai Duong City), the brown school bus 34A-662.96 had its original seats removed and rows of benches arranged to accommodate more students. Although some students complained about the cramped seating, the driver still asked them to sit closer together to accommodate as many people as possible. There was even a blue-plate bus used to transport students.

On some school buses, students stand and sit in a mess, even when the bus is moving away, some students still look around and reach their hands out of the car window... Of course, they are not wearing seat belts.

Currently, some schools invest in school buses, some schools sign contracts with transportation businesses to transport students. However, there are also cases where the school buses are rented by parents themselves according to verbal agreements.

Parents grouping students from the same area and renting cars to take their children to school makes it even more difficult to control the shuttle bus operation.

Hard to control

In neighboring provinces and cities of Hai Duong, there have been heartbreaking incidents involving school buses. Most recently, in May 2024, a kindergarten student in Thai Binh was left on a school bus and died. Similarly, in 2019, a first-grader in Hanoi also died after being left on a bus.

On June 25, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Hai Duong province sent a document to departments, branches, sectors, unions, and district-level People's Committees to strengthen the implementation of tasks to ensure traffic safety for cars transporting students. The Chairman of the People's Committee requested the Department of Transport to coordinate with the Department of Education and Training to direct the review of schools using contract cars to transport students; request transportation businesses to comply with regulations on business and conditions for business of automobile transportation; and the responsibility of drivers when vehicles are operating on the road.

Units must have a control plan to ensure that there are no passengers left on the vehicle. Passenger transport drivers, after finishing a trip or working shift, must check the passenger compartment before leaving the vehicle to ensure that there are no passengers left on the vehicle.

The provincial police directed its subordinate units to strengthen patrols, control, detect and strictly handle violations of the law in passenger transport activities, paying special attention to inspecting and handling violations of vehicles transporting students.

Traffic inspectors will strengthen coordination in inspecting transportation and student pick-up and drop-off businesses; strictly handle the use of passenger vehicles that have expired, are past inspection, or do not ensure safety for transporting and picking up students.

The People's Committees of districts, towns and cities shall direct the Department of Education and Training to preside over and coordinate the review of schools using contract cars to transport students; regularly inspect educational institutions and schools using cars to transport students, and require transport businesses to comply with regulations on business and conditions for doing business in transporting by car.

However, there are still no exact figures on the results of the review of school buses. Some schools said that the bus rental was organized by parents themselves, and the school was not aware of it. There were cases where family members rented private cars to pick up and drop off students.

The lack of strict management mechanism for school buses, their spontaneous occurrence, and the lack of responsibility of educational institutions have made this activity difficult to control. The Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety, effective from January 1, 2025, with specific regulations and tightening management of school buses, will contribute to resolving the loopholes in the management sanctions of this type of transport.

Without waiting for the law to take effect, it is necessary to immediately tighten the management of transportation and picking up students by car.