ROAD ACCIDENTS INVOLVING SCHOOL BUSES

[Mr Speaker in the Chair]

Mdm Claire Chiang See Ngoh asked the Minister for Communications and Information Technology (a) what is the number of road accidents involving school buses ferrying kindergarten children to and from home from 1997 to 1999; and (b) whether he will, in the interest of safeguarding road safety of kindergarten children travelling between home and school by buses, (i) compel all vehicles carrying out this responsibility to be equipped with children's seats and safety belts, (ii) make sure there is at least one attendant in the bus attending to the children and (iii) formulate guidelines on age limits of these bus attendants.

The Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology (Dr John Chen Seow Phun) (for the Minister for Communications and Information Technology): Mr Speaker, Sir, according to statistics by the Traffic Police (TP), between 1997 and 1999, no kindergarten child travelling in a school bus has suffered any fatal or serious injuries. TP's statistics show that there was an average of six accidents per year involving school buses, which resulted in fatal and serious injuries affecting other motorists and pedestrians. Of the total number of accidents in the three years, only about 0.1% involved school buses that resulted in fatal and serious injuries. None of these accidents which resulted in such injuries involved school children.

Existing guidelines under the Road Traffic (Public Service Vehicles) Rules require school bus owners to provide attendants of at least 16 years of age when school buses carry small children enrolled in child care centres or kindergartens. The same requirement applies when school buses carry more than 30 older school children.

Besides the requirement for school buses to have a bus attendant, the authorities also impose a speed limit of 50 km/h for such buses. The drivers will hence have to comply with these requirements as well as other traffic rules to ensure the road safety of the children. Compelling all school buses to be installed with seat belts will have cost implications for both the bus owners and the parents. The LTA and Traffic Police will continue to monitor the situation and consider implementing additional safety measures, if necessary.

Mdm Claire Chiang See Ngoh (Nominated Member): Mr Speaker, Sir, prevention is better than cure. I heard the Minister of State say about cost effectiveness. Could he elaborate what we can do more to balance this issue of cost implications and the issue of protection of children as young as 31/2 years old? What could we do more?

Dr John Chen Seow Phun: Mr Speaker, Sir, the most important is the safety record. And because of the safety measures that we implemented, that is, the speed limit of the buses and also the requirement of having the bus attendants, the safety record has shown that we do not have a safety problem. But I do agree with the Member that we can try to do more if we can, and therefore we can step up, for instance, the training of the attendants. We can consider, subject to the discussion with bus operators, whether they can perhaps implement more cost-effective protection, maybe padding and so on. But what is most important is that we do not think that we have a safety problem at this moment.

Mr Chiam See Tong (Potong Pasir): Sir, does the Ministry think that because the accident rate is only 0.1%, he says that there is no safety problem? But I think in such accident cases involving school children, you should look at the absolute numbers rather than the figures.

Dr John Chen Seow Phun: Mr Speaker, Sir, the Member for Potong Pasir did not hear what I said. The 0.1% we are talking about is the statistics involving the school buses. But as far as the children are concerned, there is no serious injury. So that is the point. If you want to have no accident at all, then let us not drive on the road.