The new school year has got off to a rough start for students attending at least one regional Victorian school who have been forced to stand for more than 45 minutes on buses travelling at 100km/h while their school waits for government approvals to add more bus services.
Parents at the school have spoken out about the situation, which flies in the face of the Victorian government’s stated aim of having students seated and seatbelts fitted to all school buses for safety reasons.
It comes in the wake of a Victorian government communication to bus operators on December 24 last year notifying them that all current bus orders would be deferred and the acceptable lifespan for existing buses in their fleets would be extended by up to five years.
ABC was contacted by a concerned parent after the school told them the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) allows students to stand on school buses if there are overcrowded services.
The school told parents it has “stretched the network” and “many of the buses will be overloaded” as students returned to school earlier this month — meaning some students may not have a seat on the bus and would be forced to stand for the journey.
The school says, “the Department of Transport does approve standing travel in these circumstances as a short-term measure”. It also told parent it is working closely with the department to ensure its application for additional school services was approved as soon as possible.
“Families live up to 45 minutes away and, without public transport options, rely on the school bus network to transport their school-aged children to their school,” a concerned parent told ABC.
“Given the current inflation crisis, it is unacceptable to me that families are being told that they must take responsibility for transporting their kids to school in their own vehicles.
“Further, any student offered a seat on a bus must be given a seat on that bus! Where buses are travelling on country roads at speeds up to 100km/hour, there should be no occasion for a student to have to stand.
“Compounding this, the announcement of extended life spans means that older buses with less safety features may be transporting students who are standing while travelling at high speeds.
“It is a universal right for children to have access to free education, but surely it is also a human right that they arrive to their school safely.”
The parent’s main concern is that the Victorian government “doesn’t seem to be taking student safety very seriously on its school bus network”.
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Compared to the goal for all school designated buses to be fitted with seatbelts, seatbelt announcements and seatbelt monitoring, the parent says the Victorian regional bus network is facing shortages that means students don’t even get seats, let alone safety technologies.
“The idea of students having to stand on regional buses is world’s away from the safety standards that families should be able to take for granted,” the parent says.
In response, a spokesperson for the Department of Transport and Planning says safety is its top priority, as shown by its requirement for all new school bus program buses to be fitted with seatbelts.
“This requirement for seatbelts to be fitted still applies to any existing, or future, orders being placed under the school bus program,” the DTP spokesperson told ABC.
However, the department did not respond to questions about this particular case or acknowledge that it endorses temporary provisions that allow students to stand onboard school buses.
On the Department of Education website it states:
“Students may be permitted to stand on a school bus once all existing seating has been allocated and only when:
- no student will be required to stand for more than 10 km
- the vehicle has a seating capacity of at least 25 adults
- the vehicle legal weight limit is not exceeded.”
The website information says the Department of Education must be notified by the coordinating principal where students regularly must stand in a speed zone above 80 km/h.
When asked about the parent’s concerns, the DTP spokesperson focused on Victoria’s school bus program which has seen seatbelt fitment rates on regional school routes rise from 43 per cent to more than 93 per cent.
The DTP spokesperson says the Department of Education has guidelines regarding standing on school buses and works with principals to monitor standing numbers.
“We continue to be informed by national safety guidelines and welcome the recent introduction of additional measures in the Australian Design Rules which will help ensure all passengers are reminded that if there is a seatbelt available on a coach or bus it must be worn,” the DTP spokesperson says.
A Bus Industry Confederation (BIC) spokesperson says all students should be afforded the same safety provisions while onboard a school bus.
Read more:
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- Victorian government defers all bus orders, extends bus lifespans
- Governments respond to Victorian bus order deferral
- New report calls out Transport for NSW for not effectively managing bus contracts
- Walgett community to benefit from door-to-door bus service