Toddler`s tragic death fuels calls for better school bus safety

Parents and education experts are urging legislation to prevent school bus accidents in the wake of the death of Kim Se-rim, a 3-year-old girl who was run over by her nursery school bus and died Tuesday.

On Feb. 26, a 7-year-old was killed when his clothes got stuck in the door of the bus of his taekwondo studio. The bus dragged the boy, killing him. After his death, both the government and many organizations announced plans to raise safety, but no effective policy has been implemented and more children have become victim to similar fates.

Had stronger regulations on school bus operations been passed after last month’s accident, Kim could have been alive. If a law preventing car rental for children’s commute was in place, the nursery school must have taken care of more to ensure children’s safety, such as getting a proper vehicle to transport children and hiring the exclusive driver. Had a law punished teachers for neglect of duty, the teacher would not have got on the bus before she saw the little girl enter the nursery school. Another law on requiring convex rear view mirrors with a wide angle installed on school buses would have gotten the bus driver must have seen the little girl walking toward the bus and not started the vehicle.

President Park Geun-hye has said nothing about children or the accidents since the accident of Feb. 26 in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, or asked government bodies to take action. The National Assembly have been preoccupied with Cabinet confirmation hearings and the April 24 by-elections and shown little interest in school bus safety. A related bill, which was submitted by Rep. Jeong Woo-taek of the ruling Saenuri Party, has not been discussed by the parliamentary committee on public administration and security. One parent said, “Such accidents likely to be seen in underdeveloped countries keep happening in Korea, but the government has turned a blind eye to the problem.”

One model that Korea could follow is the U.S., an advanced country in transportation safety. One child’s death was enough to rewrite law. In 2007, 2-year-old Cameron Gulbransen was killed when his father accidentally backed his car over him. Congress named the Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act after the victim and then President George W. Bush signed the bill into law on Feb. 28, 2008. Requiring cars to give off a beeping sound when going in reverse, the law was implemented by the Transportation Department in phases including the installation of rear view cameras and monitors.

nabi@donga.com