The General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) of the Ministry of the Interior will carry out from 22 to 26 May a new control and surveillance campaign on school transport throughout the country, in which inspection work will be carried out by the Traffic Groups of the Civil Guard, including the Canary Islands.
During the campaign, the work of inspecting vehicles intended for school transport will be intensified, checking the documentation related to the necessary authorizations for the provision of the service, as well as the vehicle itself in relation to its technical conditions and safety elements. Special attention will also be paid to the professional driver, his/her qualification and driving licence, as well as his/her driving and rest times.
With the aim of intensifying the results of the campaign and extending the interventions to urban roads, the municipalities will be invited to join it, establishing control and surveillance measures on school transport, particularly buses, which, according to data from 2021, are used by some 220,000 students and students throughout the country and which constitute about 40% of the entire private fleet of Spanish buses.
The DGT’s last special control and surveillance campaign on school transportation took place from December 12 to 16, 2022, with a result of more than 5,554 vehicles inspected nationwide (an increase of 22% over the previous campaign), of which 1,376 vehicles were reported (30% more).
In the Canary Islands, in the last campaign controls were carried out on 98 vehicles, 36 of them being reported.
Safety measures in school transport
Since the 2007-2008 school year, all vehicles dedicated to school transport must comply with the requirements of Royal Decree 443/2001 of 27 April on safety conditions in school and child transport, which establishes various requirements, such as the obligation for minors to be accompanied on the bus by a duly qualified person, the maximum age of vehicles intended for this type of passenger, the insurance of unlimited civil liability or the obligation to carry a school transport signal, among others, of singular importance.
From 2013 onwards, moreover, all new trucks and buses in the European Union must have an emergency braking system that is activated automatically when it detects the possibility of a collision.
90% of accidents that occur during school transport take place at the moment of getting in or out of the vehicle, or in the immediate moments and in many cases, these are atrocities caused by a distraction of the child, the driver of the school transport or the companions.