School van tragedy posers

The unsettling collision between a school van and a private bus on Wednesday in Mt Lavinia, which left some nine young students badly injured, raises a number of issues with regard to mainly highway discipline and road safety which have gone unaddressed over the years. As far as one could discern, speed fiends are at the centre of this horrific accident too.

There is usually a near maniacal rush on the part of school van operatives and drivers to get their wards to school on time every morning but this need to be on time is common to most motorists and we can see no 'extenuating circumstances' that could be pleaded on behalf of school van drivers on the grounds that they need to be more time-conscious than the average motorist and should therefore be given special consideration in apportioning blame.

There is no denying that reckless drivers of whatever category contribute in no small measure to local road chaos. As we see it, highway indiscipline is deeply embedded in the psyche of most of our motorists and the chances are that they would gleefully resort to dare-devilry of the most heinous kind on our roads, regardless of whether they are up against time schedules or otherwise.

Therefore, road accidents are triggered by speed fiends or 'nuts behind the wheel', and this malaise cuts across all categories of motorists. Accordingly, we are once again up against the general and frustratingly lingering problem of road indiscipline, although those motorists who are put in charge of young lives should be acutely aware of the fact that much more is expected of them than of the general run of motorists.

Police personnel, we notice, are more prominent on our highways than before and we call on the Traffic Police to show no quarter to those motorists and others who treat the law of the land with deep disdain and loathing. The lingering and uncontrolled issue is speed fiendishness and it is this disease of the mind that should be rooted out henceforth.

To be sure, parents need to be much more concerned about the safety and security of their children but some of our parents are compelled to be dependent on school vans on account of a variety of reasons and we believe it is up to the state authorities to ensure that school vans are rendered more travel-worthy. They need to be brought under some sort of system or regime of rules in relation to safety and the relevant motorists must be required to act in conformity to it.

One conspicuous feature of these school vans is that they are usually packed to capacity with hapless school children. This needs to be prevented because it increases the hazards faced by the children concerned. They usually suffocate until they get to their destinations on account of the avarice of some van operatives for more and more van fees and earnings.

Besides, when students in countless numbers are to be catered to, van drivers spend quite a lot of time driving from residence to residence picking these children up. This practice increases the pressure on the driver to proceed to the relevant schools at break-neck speed. Hence, the possibility of major road accidents occurring frequently. Accordingly, the authorities would need to ensure that the factors that precipitate these highway tragedies are completely eliminated.

To begin with, it would be sensible to minimize the number of children who could travel in one of these vans. Overcrowding of vans would need to be prohibited. Besides, these van operatives may need to be put though very stringent driving tests before they are provided with licenses. Driving a large vehicle calls for exceptional skill and dexterity and it stands to reason that only highly skilled motorists are permitted to handle school vans.

Generally speaking the appetite for 'speed thrills', which is synonymous with highway fiendishness, should be exorcised from the minds of our motorists. One of the most effective ways of achieving this is through the stringent enforcement of the law and may this be so, is our wish.