Editorial

Two incidents involving schoolchildren, one of which was fatal, clearly show the need for much greater vigilance to be exercised insofar as the safety of students is concerned.

In the fatal incident, a 14-year-old boy was killed when a metal goalpost fell on his head while he was playing in the schoolyard. The two inquiries being held will hopefully lead to new measures being taken to ensure greater safety for schoolchildren.

School transport is a headache for many parents. To our sorrow and indignation we are made to discover again and again that many of our businessmen put making a good profit well above the supply of well-made goods or the efficient rendering of services. Far too often competition does not lead to higher quality services but to the cutting of standards so as to make it possible to charge less.

This readiness to lower standards is always deplorable, but when it comes to low standards in the services to be used by the vulnerable and the young it is shocking. That is why the recent incident in which the great overloading of a school bus led to the serious injury of a schoolgirl has raised such an outcry.

The vehicle in question was licensed to carry 12 persons but was actually carrying 28, an almost incredible overload. Many of the young passengers were standing and often staggering or reeling as the bus dashed through the traffic, so it was no marvel when the rear door flew open and a girl fell out. The driver and, presumably, his employers, were simply asking for an accident to happen, and should count themselves lucky that the accident was not even more serious in its consequences.

The driver has been suspended, but so far no civil or criminal actions have been taken against him. This is not very surprising as in this country people are not always brought to court on criminal charges regarding irresponsible or negligent conduct leading to damages to property or personal injuries. The responsibility of the authorities has also to be assessed: there have been many complaints about overloading which went unheeded.

In our culture persons in authority who exercise that authority so laxly that they or their senior aides have no knowledge of what their juniors are doing or not doing, are all too often the objects of public sympathy when one of those juniors damages property or injures people through his or her neglect or thoughtlessness. Such people should be regarded as responsible at law for those accidents, unless it is proved that their employees have disobeyed orders or otherwise failed to carry out a corporation's policy.

Recent cases of workmen being injured or even killed through the negligence or incompetence of professionals in, say, the construction and setting up of large cranes are just as shocking as the overloading of a school bus and merit punitive action. What makes the school bus case more shocking is that it involved vulnerable schoolchildren.

Apart from criminal and civil actions to recover damages, there are other things that can and should have been done especially in the sensitive field of school transport.

Firms that are shown to have been lackadaisical in such essential matters as the proper loading of the vehicles they provide should have their contract terminated. Moreover, a strict inspection needs to be made of all current carriers of schoolchildren, and, if needs be, current standards for school transport should be revised. Parents of children at school need above all to have their minds at rest.