Source:Â www.rta.ae
The second day of the 1st International School Transport Conference & Exhibition at the Dubai World Trade Center, saw interactive panels including a work paper entitled: Engineering Road Safety for Schools, delivered by Adrian Tan Hock Chuan, Deputy Director, Community Partnership of Singapore’s Land Transport Authority.
Chuan focused on primary schools and highlighted the safety requisites in school buses as well as the role of the strategic partners of Singapore Transport Authority i.e. schools, students, parents, operators, drivers, conductors and even road users as they can play an active role in maintaining the safety of students through observing rules and regulations in place.
Christopher Gawronski, Transport Regulations Specialist, Department of Transport, delivered a paper entitled: Safety in School Transport: A Cooperative Approach in Al Ain, UAE, where he narrated the problems facing school transport at Al Ain such as snarls during morning peak hours, and the bad driving patterns of some drivers within school zones.
He further stated that the points of concern were: location of schools, transport infrastructure, traffic procedures, school processes and transport services; which include service quality, vehicle safety and transit options. He added that the responsibility points could be summarized in planning, infrastructure, education, law enforcement and transport.
In the second panel on the second day of the Conference, ML Augustine from School Transport Services presented a work paper entitled: Towards Better Student Management. He touched on issues related to students’ boarding & alighting from the bus, leaving them on board after the trip, bad behviours of some students; some of which might be classified as dangerous or highly dangerous, attacking students by conductors and any other emergent cases. Augustine ended his paper by focusing on three principles namely: safety, security, and sustainability.
Tom Mullins from Tyler Technologies Company presented a work paper entitled: Â Empowering People who serve the Public, where he said that the technologies in use in the school transport sector had to be accurate, accessible, reliable and timely.
He cited the benefits of using programmed technological solutions in raising the safety level of students, uplifting the efficiency of employees, upgrading the efficiency of bus trips & arrivals, enhancing the operational capacity and other benefits including improving & expediting the submission of reports. He concluded by saying that Embracing Technology was the Key to Safe and Efficient School Transportation.
From South Korea, ILKWON Chai, presented a work paper on: Korea Children Technology and Security – Children Safety Protector of School; which is an advanced research undertaken by the Seoul National University, and the Korean Transport Institute.
Finally, Graham Derek, State Director, Pupil Transportation, from North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, presented a paper about: Technology and Security, Pupil Transportation in USA. More info
