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Kids at risk while school van drivers lock horns with CMC
Unplanned parking for 30,000 school vans around the country daily adds to the traffic chaos in major cities as well as putting the safety of schoolchildren at risk.
Ravindu Daraniyagala
Children and drivers talked of situations where children run out onto the road to get into a van because the vehicle is not allowed to park closer to the school.
Van drivers have been asking for permanent parking places because school transport vehicles are no longer allowed to park near schools, the Chairman of the All-Island Inter-District Schoolchildren Transport Association, N.M.K Harishchandra Padmasiri said.
“We are concerned about the children’s safety as well as the female assistants who accompany the children to school in the van and remain until school is over,” he said.
As many as 3,000 school vehicles clog the streets of Colombo without being allocated specific parking spaces.
Children who finish classes early have to wait in buses parked in areas without shade or security for the senior classes to be over.
One school van driver, Lal Kithsiri, said children and female workers who accompany the children to school and wait to take them home again are vulnerable to abuse and harassment from some drivers and that this could be avoided if there were official parking areas.
Children and female workers who accompany them are vulnerable to abuse and harassment from some drivers and that this could be avoided if there were official parking areas. Pix by Indika Handuwala
The school van drivers’ association members could work out a van monitoring programme if drivers were allocated parking places close to schools, he said.
“We stay the whole day inside the van,” a school van female assistant N.A.D. Kamalawathi, said.
“There is no water, no washroom facilities, no security when the driver goes to get the children, and we go through all this for a payment about Rs 2,500. We protect the children as if they are our own but the authorities don’t give our problems any consideration.”
She said controlling little children inside the van was difficult while they had to wait for older children to be released from school. On during hot days, the kids wanted to get out of the baking van and play outside.
A Grade 10 student of a leading Colombo school, Ninuka Leelarathna, spoke about the dangers to the students.
“My friends run into the middle of the road and get on to their vans. I’ve seen small mallis going to get hit by vehicles while running to the middle of the road that is jammed in traffic,” he said.
Grade 7 student Ravindu Daraniyagala, who is one of those who have to wait in a van until the older children get there, said when the van is parked out in the sun he suffered in the burning heat.
Mr. Padmasiri said Colombo Municipal Council traffic wardens and private traffic wardens collect monthly parking payments of Rs 600 from school vans and Rs 1,000 from buses without providing safety, cover or minimum sanitary facilities.
Deputy Inspector of Traffic Amarasiri Senaratne said designated parking would reduce traffic congestion and allow police to monitor parking areas and ensure the children’s security.
The CMC, however, said the van drivers’ requests could not be granted due to lack of space in Colombo.
If van drivers were given spaces other transport service givers would also demand space, the CMC’s Director Engineer in Traffic Design and Road Safety of Colombo Municipal Council K.A.D.N Wickramaratne said.
He said the Rs 600 monthly parking payment was fair and if drivers wanted toilets and other facilities they should pay for them.
The Chairman of National Child protection Authority Natasha Balendra said while the CMC and the school van drivers’ association were at loggerheads, children’s security remained at risk.
She said the authority would attempt to intervene and negotiate with all parties for a solution that would grant drivers parking space with facilities for a low rate.
Outstation school van drivers also spoke of their difficulties.
Vijitha Ratnayake, who drives a school van in Kegalle, said he had to pay about Rs 500 a month for parking yet had to sometimes park far away from a school, and when traffic prevented him from getting to a school promptly at closing time children begin to come out of the school premises and stand waiting on main roads, which made them vulnerable to accidents and abuse.
Mr. Ratnayake said that one of the schools in the area had come up with a solution.
The principal of Rambukkana Sujatha Vidyalaya and the head monk of the nearby temple had joined forces to support the van drivers and the children by offering the temple premises for parking and a new school gate opening into the temple to prevent children waiting on roads for their transport.
Sarath Laxman Sumanasekara, a school van driver in Galle, said that with no place to park in the Galle Fort, drivers had taken over a tourist car park.
He said police and the Galle Municipal Council had tried to oust them from there but the vans had returned because the female assistants serving in school vans needed facilities.
He said that the vans also have a parking place at Orappuwatte but it cannot contain 600 vehicles.