Group seeks better-regulated school transport

A mother who was kept in the dark when her daughter, 6, was involved in two separate minivan crashes this year set up a Facebook group calling for better regulation of school transport.

Although both accidents were not serious, Laura Anderson’s daughter, Lucy, is still reluctant to board the school minivan and is being walked to school.

Ms Anderson is calling for compulsory seat belts on school transport, better adult supervision and a system that ensures parents have a way of knowing when their children are involved in an accident. “My daughter attends the primary state school at Pembroke and, in February and March this year, she was involved in two school bus crashes. On both occasions, I was not informed and found out purely by chance,” Ms Anderson wrote on the group called Protect Our Schoolchildren Malta.

A spokesman for the Education Ministry said that if an accident occurred the transport operator should have informed the school or the Directorate for Educational Services. The directorate – that has a record of all students on each route and a parent or guardian contact – then informs parents of the children concerned when the information is received.

But none of this happened in the case of Ms Anderson. She recounted that the first accident took place in the morning when the minivan collided with a car at a junction near the Corner Food Store in Swieqi.

Ms Anderson said she only found out when her daughter told her what happened on her return from school. By that time, the school was closed and she had to wait till the following day to speak to the head. She was told parents were not informed because the accident was minor, she said.

“A boy on the van wet himself and my daughter was crying... They saw the driver shout at the car driver... It’s not up to them to decide what is minor for our children,” she argued.

Six weeks later, Ms Anderson was at work when her nanny called her to tell her that there had been an accident involving the school minivan near Sunrise Inn, in St Julians.

A four-by-four crashed into the back of the van. The brother of a boy on the van saw the accident as he was heading home from school on a different van. When he was dropped off at the bus stop, he told parents waiting there about the crash.

Among the waiting parents was Ms Anderson’s nanny who headed to the site. She called Ms Anderson and told her that her daughter had been involved in a collision and was being seen by a doctor in an ambulance because she complained of neck pain. Other children complained of aches and pains. No one was seriously injured. Again, it was too late to call the school as it was closed.

“That day, at home, Lucy sat there crying... she did not have any dinner and just went to bed,” she said.

The following day, Ms Anderson took the matter to school. She asked for supervision but was told there was no budget. The school has since agreed to allow parents to supervise.

Angry at the situation, she set up the Facebook group. “Even if nothing becomes of it, I just want people to be aware of what the situation is with their kids on the school bus,” she said.

She pointed out that children rarely wore seat belts on school minivans. “Some of these minivans are just white vans with seats... Many minivans don’t have seat belts and, if they do, children don’t wear them. The drivers say it’s not their job to ensure children are wearing seat belts”.

Tomomi Taniguchi, whose seven-year-old daughter, Amina, is on the same van as Lucy, added: “I feel like we parents cannot do anything... There is no place to phone to see where the bus is... Every child should have a right to feel safe,” she said.

In May 2008, an EU directive on seat belt use in school transport came into force in Malta. The directive obliges minibuses manufactured after 1997 to be fitted with seat belts. Those manufactured before that year are exempt.