EDITORIAL - Endangering schoolchildren

Apart from passenger buses and trucks, there’s another type of vehicle that is often seen tearing through the streets with reckless abandon: school buses. Apparently feeling unencumbered by traffic coding schemes and even by regular traffic rules, drivers of school vans seem to regard the vehicles like ambulances with right-of-way privileges.

A problem crops up when two such vehicles run into each other – which was what happened early Tuesday morning in Quezon City. Six students aged seven to 15 were injured when two vans ferrying students to different schools collided at the intersection of N. Roxas and Speaker Perez streets in Barangay Lourdes. Traffic was light at past 5 a.m. – a situation seen by certain drivers as an opportunity to step on the gas.

This dangerous habit can be regulated if traffic enforcers are fielded at daybreak, when students start heading for school. Motorists ignore speed limits and drive at breakneck speed when they believe they can get away with it, in the absence of traffic monitors. For a long time this was the case along Commonwealth Avenue, until the death of journalist Lourdes “Chit” Estella Simbulan in May 2011 prompted the imposition of a speed limit and fielding of more traffic enforcers along the so-called “killer highway.”

Going by accident statistics, the measures have barely made Commonwealth safer. Last year, the killer highway continued to live up to its reputation, accounting for 2,993 of the 18,398 recorded vehicular accidents in Metro Manila. The avenue also accounted for 25 of the fatal accidents – the highest number in the metropolis.

The lack of traffic enforcers is not solely to blame. The Metro Manila Development Authority has correctly pointed out that poor maintenance of vehicles, weather conditions and the state of road networks contribute to accidents, on top of the failure of many motorists to observe road courtesy and practice defensive driving.

When people refuse to observe safe driving practices, however, they can be compelled to do so through effective enforcement of traffic rules. School vehicles, whose passengers are mostly children, deserve better regulation and a closer watch.