Rein in schools that predispose their learners to road accidents

A dangerous trend is cropping up — that of schools predisposing children to road accidents through sheer negligence and blatant disregard for basic safety rules. On Friday, a kindergarten pupil died in a nasty accident involving a school bus in Tudor, Mombasa. Six-year-old Jeremy Musila of St Augustine Primary School was run over when he slipped through a hole on the floor of the bus.

The strange circumstances surrounding the death of the minor not only shocked the country but also raised the spectre of risks that await school children, especially in urban areas.

While safety is a shared responsibility, it is regrettable that our sense of concern regarding keeping every child safe in school only gets renewed with each tragedy that strikes. Still, we only scratch the surface in search for solutions.

Last year, 180 children died in road accidents between January and August alone, according to statistics by the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA). The figures are perturbing. On July 1, 2015, a three-year old boy was crushed to death after alighting from a school bus at Nyayo estate in Nairobi. On August 12 last year, four learners died in Kisii after their school bus, which was on a road test, rolled while on June 15 same year, three students died in Baringo in a crash that left many unanswered questions. The safety of children must not be taken for granted any longer. Rather than be defensive, we urge school administrators to take safety to heart.

NTSA should ride on the back of the road safety Bill signed by President Kenyatta on Friday to rein in disobliging schools. Strict enforcement of the Traffic Amendment Act 2017, which seeks to amend the Traffic (cap 403) should be a game changer. It provides that school vehicles meet all set standards. It should also be a policy that children are accompanied whenever being picked or dropped. Lax oversight in the transport sector must stop now.