Mama loves me that’s why she put me in this moving coffin

JOHANNESBURG – With the schools reopening soon, one may want to see the incidents of road accidents and fatalities involving scholar transport ferrying our beloved kids to different schools in the province decreased to a zero degree. In as much as the contracted transport operators are vetted and vehicles used are subjected to periodic vehicle checks by the Department of Community Safety, it remains critical for parents to complement this by conducting a physical check whether their kids are not overloaded or the vehicle is in good condition.

This is precisely because whenever the vehicle with defects such as worn tyres, faulty brakes, a driver exercising colossal impunity on our roads, he is not only putting his life at risk but also those of other motorists, pedestrians and passengers. Insurance will not cover when a vehicle is not roadworthy or overloaded.

It then calls for one to ponder, do we as parents do our part to ensure child safety in this moving coffins? Can I certainly guarantee that my child will return home safely?

It is worrying that last year alone learner transport in excess of 100 has been taken off the road for various vehicle defects such as faulty brakes, worn out tyres, steering mechanism not properly functional, overloading as well as expired license discs. These vehicles vary from contracted operators of the Department of Education to private ones who infiltrate the market to top up their daily and monthly income. It has to cautioned though that contracted or not, all must abide by the prescripts of the National Road Traffic Act 1996 (Act 93 of 1996).

As a matter of fact also the driver has the responsibility to ensure that the vehicle he drives complies with the law. Traffic fines are going to be issued to the driver, not the owner or the contractor. It is always the driver who will face criminal charges of inter alia, reckless and negligent driving, driving an unroadworthy vehicle, culpable homicide when the brakes could fail resulting in a fatal crash. At no given point would the driver then blame the owner, therefore warrants full inspection of the vehicle prior engaging in a trip, no matter the distance. As for the contractor, one has to gauge whether losing a day’s income is proportional to paying an impounded fee of R1500 plus another expenses for fixing the defects that led to the car being impounded.

It must be noted that contracted and non-contracted operators should take an advantage of the periodic free and voluntary vehicle testing of buses and taxis, carried out throughout Gauteng at identified Vehicle Testing Centres. The initiative was introduced in 2010 after the Department of Community Safety entered into a partnership with the Gauteng Department of Education through a tender learner transport system.

However after the realisation that there are a number of informal learner transports, the offer was extended to all public passenger transport with the aim of reducing the road accidents and fatalities involving learners.

Thapelo Moiloa is the Director for Media in the Department of Community Safety