School bus safety should be taught at home, UAE experts say

Parents and teachers must take a more active role in promoting safety aboard school buses, xperts say.

Transport and safety analysts say the human element is as important as technology when it comes to keeping school pupils safe on their commute. Delores Johnson / The National

ABU DHABI // Parents and teachers must take a leading role in keeping children safe aboard school buses, experts say.

“No matter how many tools, devices and safety and security systems we use, the behaviour of the students and the level of compliance of traffic rules are affecting school transport safety,” said Faryal Tawakul, executive director of corporate services at Emirates Transport.

“Teachers and parents should educate the children on appropriate bus behaviour and reinforce school bus safety rules, and the community should help to build a traffic safety culture for road users.”

More than 220,000 pupils in 708 schools across the country travel each day on 4,822 Emirates Transport buses, which provide travel to all public and some private schools. There are 4,539 drivers assisted by 4,228 supervisors.

Emirates Transport has launched a safety initiative, Safety Stations, with Abu Dhabi Educational Council.

“Our aim is to identify the role of each one in enhancing school transport safety,” Ms Tawakul said.

Initiatives include daily bus safety inspections, regular maintenance, a manual pupil checking system, a disciplinary system to ensure students’ behaviour does not affect their safety and that of others, and cameras and tracking systems to identify the cause of accidents and detect offences by drivers or students.

Emirates Transport has recently adopted the ISO 39001 road traffic safety management system to help reduce and eliminate road traffic accidents, deaths and injuries, said Khalid Shukur, the health, safety and environment manager at Emirates Transport.

“We are targeting a zero accident record in school transport,” Ms Tawakul said. “It is achievable because we’re targeting the safety of innocent children who are our future.”

Since implementing the smart safety systems on Abu Dhabi school buses, no accident has occurred since the start of the school year, she said.

Emirates Transport operates 2,090 school buses in Abu Dhabi, with a capacity of 137,317 seats to cover 254 schools through 63,900 meeting points and 3,056 bus routes.

Of those, 1,300 buses have been fitted with a device that counts the number of children getting on and off.

A motion sensor detects movement inside a parked bus, and is connected to a system that triggers an alarm if someone remains on board.

A check button at the back of the bus forces the driver to walk down the aisle and verify that each seat had been vacated before he can press it.

Speakers have also been installed to communicate to a child left inside the bus.

“We have worked on 17 messages in Arabic and English and intend to enhance the service with other languages,” said Basil Assaf, project manager at Emirates Transport’s IT department.

“Some of these are ‘calm down, no problem, have a seat, people will be here shortly to help you’.”

These devices, along with the cameras, are connected to a mobile digital video recorder system, which can send alerts from the vehicle warning of harsh acceleration and braking, speeding and driving while doors are open.

The measures come after the death of Nizaha Aalaa, 3, a pupil at Al Worood Academy Private School, who was locked on a school bus in October last year.

Other safety measures inside school buses are a stop-arm, a speed limiter that prevents drivers from going faster than 80kph, cameras, fire extinguishers, first aid kits and GPS tracking systems.

“Each school bus is equipped with six cameras, internal and external,” Mr Shukur said. “In the event of an accident, this will be a good reference for us to conduct a proper investigation.”

A team of traffic inspectors will monitor bus drivers and supervisors while on duty at least twice a year.

A checklist has been prepared to monitor safe driving and compliance with road traffic rules, safe loading and unloading of students, and daily bus inspections carried out by the bus driver, Mr Shukur said.