Union Transport Ministry to conduct two-day 'Safe School Transport' meet

New Delhi (Urban Transport News): The Union Ministery for Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is going to hold a two-day conclave in New Delhi to brainstorm for formulating a national ‘draft policy for safe school transport’. As per the data shared by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in its global report on road safety released in December 2018, about 655 children in Delhi died in road accidents last year. According to data provided by the MoRTH, around 10,000 children below the age of 18 are killed in road accidents every year in the country. In the wake of the rising number of children dying in road accidents in the country, the union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) will hold a two-day meet to be conducted on April 29-30 in New Delhi. The road safety experts and stakeholders from various departments, including education and transport from the state governments, are invited to submit their views. In the report, it has been said that road traffic injuries are the first cause of death among children aged six and 14 years. The two-day meet will be hosted by the Institute of Road Traffic and Education (IRTE) and School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), in partnership with the MoRTH and the meet aims to deliberate on issues regarding the loopholes and challenges faced in providing safe transport facilities for children. IRTE president Rohit Baluja said that the two-day conference is aimed at developing a policy document for India to incorporate domains such as roles and responsibility, road environment, vehicle factors, standard operating procedures as well as the curriculum of training of stakeholders dealing with the transportation of school children in all modes of transport including both motorised and non-motorised means, enforcement, and post-crash management. “Delhi is one of the few states with an existing school transport policy. However, we had proposed a fresh policy for which we had written to the education department asking them to share details of the number of schools, children enrolled and the type of transport engaged both by the schools as well as the parents. We are still waiting for the data and will start work on it as soon as we receive it,” said a senior official as reported by HT.