NTSA Launches Crackdown on School Buses, Lists 5 Priority Areas

NTSA mounts a roadblock along a Kenyan Road on April 8, 2023.
NTSA mounts a roadblock along a Kenyan Road on April 8, 2023.
Photo
NTSA

The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) on Tuesday, May 9, launched a crackdown to ensure all school buses conformed to traffic rules.

In a statement, the authority noted that the crackdown, which was launched countrywide, was aimed at ensuring that all school-going children were treated with decorum whenever in transit.

The statement added that as a result, the crackdown will go a notch higher in ensuring that all speed limiters fitted on school buses were functional as well as ensuring the validity of individual motor vehicle inspection.

Other areas of focus, according to the authority, included licensing requirements for drivers, lane discipline and over overloading of vehicles.

National Transport and Safety Authority with police officers during an operation on Sunday April 9, 2023
National Transport and Safety Authority with police officers during an operation in Kuambu County on Sunday, April 9, 2023.
Photo
NTSA

"Through the ongoing multi-agency road safety clinic, we are assessing road safety compliance levels of school transport with attention being placed on the functionality of the speed limiters, the validity of motor vehicle inspection, licensing requirements for drivers, lane discipline, and over overloading of vehicles.

"To complement these efforts, with the support of Ministries, Agencies and Departments through the Government’s Road Safety Mainstreaming Programme, we have heightened Usalama Barabarani campaign aimed at behavior and attitude change," NTSA stated.

The authority clarified that the crackdown was launched in line with a directive by Transport Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen aimed at ensuring that all students were safe while on the road.

The Transport Ministry directed that school transport should not operate outside the prescribed time of 5:00 am to 10:00 pm and that it was the responsibility of school management to ensure children are not ferried outside the specified timelines. 

Further, drivers and conductors were expected to protect the children by always ensuring the use of seat belts while on board. 

"Seat belts are an effective measure to protect against movements during a collision or sudden stop of the vehicle. 

"It is a fact that they reduce the likelihood of death or serious injuries in an event of a crash and their use must be always prioritised," NTSA statement maintained.

Murkomen's directive came hot on the heels of a Pwani University bus accident that cost 18 lives and left several others nursing injuries.

The fatal accident was captured on a dashcam camera which showed the Pwani University bus in the middle of the road occupying both lanes at full speed, almost colliding with the oncoming vehicles.

Preliminary reports indicated that the driver lost control of the vehicle, whose brakes had failed, making it collide with a matatu along Nakuru-Nairobi Highway.

A photo of the Pwani University bus which overturned at Kayole area in Naivasha along the Nairobi - Nakuru Highway on March 30, 2023.
A photo of the Pwani University bus which overturned at Kayole area in Naivasha along the Nairobi - Nakuru Highway on March 30, 2023.
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