Tembisa school bus drivers addressed
We believe that educating scholar transporters will help to reduce the number of accidents.
After the recent school bus accident that claimed the life of a 5-year-old Esselen Park girl, members of the Tembisa Education Transport Coordinators (TETCO) together with the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) addressed school bus drivers at the Khaya Lothando Community Hall.
Speaking at the meeting, that was held on Saturday last week, TETCO Public Relations Officer Mr Oupa Gumede said they wanted to educate the transporters about the do’s and don’ts of transporting children.
Mr Gumede highlighted issues of how to behave as a transporter, how to react when certain circumstances arise and to comply with the rules and regulations of the road as far as safety is concerned to ultimately minimise the road accident rate.
EMPD Southern Region Social Crime Coordinator Mr Klaas Dube said they have received a lot of accident reports that involve scholar transportation. “It came to our attention that we need to do something about it. We believe that educating scholar transporters will help to reduce accidents,” he explained.
Mr Dube added they are planning to run compulsory free testing for all scholar transportation. He also emphasised the importance of using safety belts in vehicles when transporting children. “It is important that drivers should not overload children in their vehicles. Overloaded vehicles are easily spotted,” he added.
EMPD Northern Region Social Crime Coordinator Mr Josias Masilela said drivers should have their valid driver licences and PrDP at all times.
“This is to check after two years the state of health of the driver. A first aid kit and a fire extinguisher must always be in the vehicle. A file with the names of the children, their parents’ cellular numbers, home address, names and the contact numbers of their family doctor. A passenger liability receipt should also be in the file,” he added.
Mr Masilela further said the tendency of extending the sitting arrangement of the vehicle is against the law.
“This is going to be an ongoing thing until the whole of the metropolitan area is educated as far as the law is concerned,” he concluded.
