The General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) of the Ministry of the Interior will carry out from today and until next November 22 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.
“Road safety is one of the priorities for the Government of Spain in the field of citizen security and, in particular, we must focus on the safety of the smallest and the smallest, creating safe environments. It is important to bear in mind that the work for the safety of children of school age does not refer to what happens inside their educational centers, but also since they set foot outside their homes,” says the government delegate in the Canary Islands, Anselmo Pestana.
“The issue of safety in school travel and transportation is particularly important in geographical environments such as the Canary Islands, where there can be a lot of dispersion of population centers that makes it necessary to use the guaguas to be able to take our daughters and sons to school. Hence the importance of this campaign to prevent and raise awareness, not only for professionals in public transport, but also for mothers and fathers”, he adds.
In order to intensify the results of the campaign and extend the interventions to the urban roads of circulation, the municipalities will again be invited to join it establishing control and surveillance measures on school transport, which, in the last campaign, in May 2024, resulted in a control of 2,946 vehicles by municipal corporations throughout Spain.
With regard to the controls carried out by the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard throughout the national territory, these stood at 3,660 in the last May campaign, the highest figure recorded in recent years, which raised the global count to more than 6,600 vehicles inspected throughout the country, of which 1,928 were reported.
In the campaign last May in the Canary Islands, the Traffic Group of the Civil Guard and the Local Police carried out checks on a total of 288 vehicles, of which 132 were 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.
“We must also emphasise the need to develop safe school roads, which facilitate travel to school or institute on foot, by bicycle or by public transport to improve road safety for minors. These roads must have wide sidewalks and no traffic lights with intermittent amber lights for the vehicles. The centers must have parking for bicycles and a ban on parking at the entrance and exit to avoid crowds,” says the provincial director of the DGT in Las Palmas, Eva Canitrot.
“We must also highlight the STARS Project (Accreditation and Recognition of Sustainable Travel for Schools), a European initiative that aims to encourage and reward schools that promote sustainable and safe travel between their schools, both on foot and by bicycle. In the Canary Islands we already have 50 schools working on the STARS Project”, he adds.