Legal Notice 96 of 2017, stipulating that no passenger vehicle not fitted with seat belts can be used to transport schoolchildren, is basically correct but not enough for student safety.

Truly professional, experienced and morally correct school principals would never even dream of allowing a group of grossly diverse and mixed-ability schoolchildren to ride in a school minibus or coach without adequate, well-trained, assertive adult supervision by at least one other person, apart from the vehicle driver, even though, unfortunately, there is still no legislation to this effect.

A vehicle driver’s main duty is to keep his/her eyes on the road and drive safely. But no one can really drive safely if s/he has to keep looking in the rear view mirror or even turn his/her head to monitor what is going on inside the minibus or coach.

I appeal to all relevant authorities to mandate that there should always be another well-trained (and regularly tested and monitored) alert adult sitting at the back of vehicles. From there, s/he can adequately monitor the children sitting (hopefully) in front of him/her whenever minibuses or coaches are used to transport schoolchildren.