Wednesday, 4 July 2018

Wanaka Primary calls for school bus policy review

    1. Regions
    2. Wanaka
    1 Comment

    Andrew Howard.
    Andrew Howard.
    Wanaka Primary School is calling on the Government to review school bus policies that presently allow for pupils to stand in the aisle while travelling on the open road, believing it to be a major safety risk.

    School board chairman Andrew Howard said the New Zealand Transport Agency's (NZTA) ''certificate of loading'' regime allows school buses to load children to the point some are forced to stand.

    ''I was very surprised to hear that standing is not only allowed but positively encouraged under the current system. We consider children of any age having to stand in the aisles of school buses to be extremely unsafe and potentially life threatening,'' Mr Howard said.

    ''These are large vehicles travelling at 80km/h on the open road in all weathers. There are additional risks in our district with often severe winter driving conditions and inexperienced tourist drivers not used to New Zealand roads. Studies suggest that pedestrian survival rates in an accident with a vehicle travelling at 80km/h are zero. The same could be said for standing passengers in a moving bus.''

    The school has received support from Queenstown Lakes District Mayor Jim Boult, who questioned the legislation in a letter to the Ministry of Education.

    ''We don't for one minute condone adults riding in motor cars without seatbelts, yet we are prepared to allow the most precious part of our community - our children - to stand up unrestrained on the open road. The situation does seem ludicrous,'' Mr Boult wrote.

    Mr Howard said the situation could be resolved either by the Ministry of Education adopting a one-seat-per-child funding formula or by the Ministry of Transport changing legislation to stop allowing passengers to stand on buses when travelling on the open road.

    He said the Ministry of Education had conducted its own study and found the cost of providing a seat for all children would cost about $1.4 million.

    ''This seems like a small price to pay for dramatically improving the safety of our children.''

    1 Comment

    Comments

    jb01 Wed, 04/07/2018 - 5:29am

    i would like this reporter to hire a bus, take it to a school and fill it to its legal limit with primary school age children. most parents and probably politicians have no idea how many children are on a full bus and some decent photos would support the case.