Zero tolerance to school transport safety breaches

Community, students and parents must also play active role to raise awareness, says Adec director-general.

The School Transport Executive Committee and its partners including the Department of Transport (DoT), Abu Dhabi Police and Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) will soon develop a new programme for the safety of school children. The programme called ‘Zero tolerance to violations of our children’s safety’ was discussed on Monday at an emergency meeting attended by officials from DoT, Adec, Abu Dhabi Police, Abu Dhabi Media Council and General Secretariat of the Executive Council.

Brigadier Hussein Ahmed Al Harthi, Director of Traffic Patrol Directorate, who is also the chairman of the committee, stressed on the importance of having competent, qualified and well-trained supervisors who are familiar with the safety procedures and are fully aware of their responsibilities while accompanying the students and ensuring their safety inside school transportation vehicles.

“We are rigorously working to monitor and supervise the commitment of school transport operators and supervisors in applying all the security and safety measures in order to reassure parents of their children’s safety. Moreover, we are taking into account the need for intensive and active collaboration with all government and community parties concerned,” said Al Harthi.

He affirmed that all parties thoroughly and periodically monitor school transport operators across the emirate of Abu Dhabi to guarantee their commitment to school transport regulations and requirements in accordance with the best security and safety standards.

Al Harthi noted that the committee recently issued a public announcement on the ban of using minibuses and microbuses as school transport vehicles due to their lack of necessary safety standards.

The committee also recently commenced a series of preventive measures, including inspections and field visits to examine the safety of school transport systems. These measures aim to guarantee the provision of an integrated, comfortable and sustainable transport services with the highest standards of safety and security for students during their daily trips between home and school.

Dr Amal Al Qubaisi, Director-General, Adec, said all the stakeholders must exert intensive effort in order to ensure the highest level of security and safety which prevents the occurrence of any unfortunate incidents. She also issued strict directives to intensify the efforts of all relevant stakeholders through mutual cooperation in order to ensure that school transport safety has achieved maximum security levels.

“In spite of my strong commitment to ensuring that all the relevant entities carry out their regulatory and supervisory responsibilities to make sure that all school transport safety measures are duly respected and violators are punished, I must also stress on the vital and important role and responsibility of the community, parents and students themselves in raising awareness about safety procedures, and reporting any violations that may pose a risk to students while traveling from their homes to school and vice-versa,” Al Qubaisi said.

She stressed on the importance of adopting a zero tolerance policy when applying firm measures and strict procedures against any violations of school transport safety. According to her, this will contribute to avoiding any accidents or risks that may threaten schoolchildren whether resulting from transgressions or negligence.

The meeting concluded with important recommendations and mutual procedures that all school transport entities concerned will adopt and apply in order to secure the highest safety standards in school transportation. -nissar@khaleejtimes.com