How school travel is dangerous for students and schools.
An increase in car use and a lack of adoption of school bus technology means that the safety around school areas is being compromised.
Below we look at all the areas in which student and school safety is being affected.
How increased car usage affects school safety
School gates become dangerous for students
Too many cars travelling in and around the school gates is not safe. Especially at the start and end of the school day. This is a time when there is an increase in students walking around. Making the school gates a dangerous place for students as accidents are more likely to occur. Reduce the number of vehicles and you reduce the level of risk.
More congestion in area surrounding school
Having a high number of cars on the road due to the ‘school run’ means more congestion around areas near schools, delaying other commuters and leading to erratic driving patterns. Students walking to school are left vulnerable to being involved in car accidents.
Increased air pollution around school
More cars used for the ‘school run’ means an increase in vehicle pollution. However more so around the school itself. Resulting in increased health risks for students and teachers alike.
Safety issues with using school bus transportation
No school bus visibility
Parents and schools usually have no GPS, vehicle tracking or school bus technology available. Parents are unable to see whether their child got to school, and schools are unable to see if there is an issue with a particular bus route.
No accountability of operators/drivers
Schools are unable to hold operators accountable for any safety issues with vehicles or drivers. By law, anyone working with children or young people needs to have acquired a DBS check. This includes drivers. Also, drivers should perform daily walk round checks before driving any vehicle. Schools have no visibility on whether these checks have been carried out correctly, so cannot hold operators to account.
Lack of Incident management
Schools are unable to see any of their operating routes in real-time. Meaning that if there is an incident, then there is a delay in responding to the issue. A delay in responding puts students at risk.
Student health issues
Students with existing health issues need specific support to keep themselves safe. Operators are often uninformed of these issues because the relay of information is manual. This puts these students in danger when something goes wrong.
For more information on how we can help with these issues and more, please check out our Rygo page.
