OPINION

The email had some urgency about it, as a message from a school bus driver.

He had expressed his concern to multiple agencies about his fear that he might be shortly picking one of his kids off the road, based on the speed that some drivers pass him when he is picking up and dropping off his charges.

He wanted to tell me about it.

Each school day around 800,000 school-age children make their way to school. Around 600,000 either drive themselves or are driven by someone else, and 113,000 take the school bus.

It’s not hard to see how road congestion is related to school hours.

This column is about those 113,000 kids, and how we drivers seem to have forgotten that our speed limit when passing a stationary school bus dropping off or picking up students, is a long-established 20km/h.

I can recall two primary school girls being hit after alighting from a school bus within 100m on either side of our gateway where we live.

One is still in a wheelchair. The other had a long, painful and complicated return to almost normal mobility.

Northland is historically overrepresented in fatal and serious injuries around school buses. The latest was less than 12 months ago when an 11-year-old was hit by a truck when he had just gotten off a school bus at Awanui.

Seth Ngahika survived that crash, but the coroner’s report released in June this year into the death of 12-year-old Hinerangi Iese makes salutary reading in respect to safety measures and safe driving behaviour around school buses.

Hinerangi died when hit by a logging truck after alighting from a school bus at Subritzky Rd in the Far North in 2019.

While the coroner found no fault with the logging truck driver, he made a number of observations about making the school bus environment safer for kids getting on and off.

He noted that Hinerangi’s death was the first since 2010 as a result of a school bus-related crash but 11 children suffered serious injuries around school buses during that period.

The coroner considered flashing lights on buses, where they are stopping and stopped, and noted that there had been some research and a trial in Ashburton in 2014.

LED flashing signs displaying the 20km/h speed limit fitted to school buses were designed to activate 20 seconds before the bus stopped, and remained activated for 20 seconds after the bus started moving again.

The trial was coupled with an awareness campaign through media and other local sources reminding drivers that “Either way, It’s 20K”- referencing the speed limit past a stationary school bus picking up and dropping off children is 20kmp/h in both directions.

The trial reported the percentage of drivers slowing to 20km/h doubled, but that results were variable without the awareness campaign.

This successful trial has not made its way into legislation despite strong multi-agency support, based on cost implications and perhaps 11 serious injuries in 10 years is not a high enough hurdle.

But school bus safety issues will not go away and a petition has been presented to parliament recently requesting seatbelts on all school buses.

New Zealand, though, is very timid about school bus safety. The US and Canada really take the safety of bus kids seriously with bus construction, legislation and enforcement.

Their school buses are the safest vehicles on the road. They are a distinctive yellow and have multiple flashing lights as well as Stop arms extended when a child is picked up or dropped off.

All vehicles going both ways must stop when the signs are activated. These buses have strategically placed mirrors allowing the driver to see 360 degrees around the bus.

There are no seat belts, but seats are high-backed, impact absorbing and compartmentalised close together.

Buses are built with a high-impact zone and are fitted with infraction cameras that capture a video image of vehicles passing while the Stop arm is extended. Enforcement fines are substantial with demerit points.

We need to keep reminding ourselves about the 20km/h limit, and school bus safety is another dimension to be considered if a “Road to Zero” strategy is to be taken seriously.