The death of a 7-year-old school girl found locked in a school van from morning until late in the afternoon in a parking lot of a school in Chon Buri last Tuesday is a tragic incident that can be prevented, without much difficulty.
It happened simply because of the gross negligence of the teacher who was put in charge of taking care of the children in the vehicle.
There is a clear rule from the Ministry of Education that the teacher must do a head count of children boarding and alighting a school bus or van to make sure the numbers match. And clearly, this rule was not followed.
For safety reasons, the teacher must double-check to make sure that not a single child is left behind as he or she may fall asleep in the back row of seats. The teacher should get into the vehicle to check -- a process which does not take more than a minute.
For the parents who lost a loved one as in this case, the excruciating pain is understandable, as is their decision to pursue the case and demand a second autopsy because of the inconsistency of the explanation given by school management about the girl's death.
This is not an act of revenge, but a reminder to all schools that provide school bus services that they must not take safety for granted of the children in their care, especially the very young, as well as the safety of the vehicles and the behaviour of drivers, a problem which has always been ignored.
Yet the reckless performance of teachers and drivers is just the tip of the iceberg.
According to the Foundation for Consumers, many school vans are not actually built for school bus service.
Many bus services are operated by outsourcing to private operators. Forget the images of school buses we often see in films of school buses in yellow or other bold colours, with ample space and strict teachers supervising at the door.
Many school vans in Thailand are modified from passenger vans, lack standard safety features or emergency equipment and not regularly checked; for instance, an engine check to find out if emissions leak into the vehicles or not.
Another question concerns the qualification of drivers. Some drivers are not fit to drive a school bus or van as they tend to be careless or reckless, especially drivers who are hired to provide the service because the schools cannot afford their own fleet.
This latest tragic accident is not the first such case. But it is sadder to know it is unlikely to be the last.
According to the Disease Control Department, there were 129 cases reported cases of children, aged from two to six, being left behind in locked school vehicles from 2014 to 2020.
However, there were only six fatalities, comprising five in school vans and one in the private car of a teacher.
In most cases, the children fell asleep in the back seat and they were not noticed by their teacher or driver who did not bother to check.
There is a model example from the Boriboon Wittaya school in Nakhon Si Thammarat that other schools can emulate.
All school vans operated by this school are required to open their rear doors after they park in the school. This ensures that if a child is left behind, the child will be noticed.
Indeed, there are plenty of innovations that schools can apply to ensure safety.
To enhance safety and improve services, school buses in the US have made use of technology such as camera systems capturing video and audio of what's happening on the bus, and on-line live fleet tracking, which provide GPS tracking features to monitor bus fleets in real-time.
Users can get a map-based view of every bus, and live vehicle status such as speed, direction, idling, stops and operational efficiencies, according to the report from US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Another area which needs improvement concerns teaching survival techniques that older children can use it they get trapped in a vehicle, such as how to press the car horn to get help or how to safely break the car window.
The number of fatalities of children in locked cars may not be significant, but when one occurs, a collective sense of remorse and even anger follows among the public.
They ask: How can this be allowed to happen? How can it be stopped once and for all? Can this be the last incident?
Veera Prateepchaikul is former editor, Bangkok Post.
