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IF ONLY I HAD BELTED UP: A road trip to Cameron Highlands two years ago left Madam Wai Foong Kwai, 54, paralysed from the neck down for four months. She did not have her seat belt on when the car she was in collided with another vehicle. -- ST PHOTO: WANG HUI FEN
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Enough is enough. No other child should die.
Several MPs will be lobbying for new laws that will make it mandatory for school buses to be fitted with seat belts, they tell The Sunday Times.
They are planning to speak up strongly on the matter when Parliament next sits, which is likely to be on May 26.
'It is high time seat belts are made compulsory on school buses and the rule should be implemented immediately. This is very urgent because young lives are at stake,' said Madam Cynthia Phua, an MP for Aljunied GRC.
She and other MPs were responding to the April 24 death of eight-year-old Russell Koh, who was thrown out of his school
minibus after it was hit by two cars. He was not buckled up as the bus was not fitted with seat belts.
Sembawang GRC MP Lim Wee Kiak said he wants to ask Transport Minister Raymond Lim: 'What next?'
'One death is really one too many. The Traffic Police said that they will be stepping up efforts to encourage child safety, but the Ministry of Transport has not said anything on this issue so far,' he said.
Tampines GRC MP Ong Kian Min, deputy chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport, added: 'There are so many school bus operators and they are all privately owned. The Government has to set the standard for them.'
Following the death of Russell, many parents urged the Government to force minibus drivers to install seat belts in their vehicles. But bus operators said they will charge more if such a law is passed.
Two years ago, MPs also raised this issue in Parliament following a school bus accident in which eight pupils were injured. Then-transport minister Yeo Cheow Tong told the House that installing seat belts could mean higher fares and reduced seating capacity in buses.
Traffic Police statistics show that in 2006, 16 kids suffered minor injuries in vehicle accidents because they were not belted up. That year, an eight-year-old died for the same reason.
There were no fatalities last year but four children were injured. In the first three months of this year, four children were injured because they were not buckled up. The statistics do not cover school buses because they do not have seat belts.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA), which plans Singapore's long-term transport needs, has been studying the feasibility of seat belts in school buses.
An LTA spokesman told The Sunday Times yesterday that an issue being considered is whether to use the two-point or three-point version.
'While two-point lap belts cost significantly less to install, they can actually increase the risk of internal abdominal injuries, especially to children below the age of eight as their abdominal and bone structure is not fully developed to support the force of lap belts during a collision,' she said.
'Neither can they be safely used with booster seats as the lack of upper body restraint, coupled with the child being raised higher, puts the child at greater risk of head, neck and spinal injuries in a frontal collision.
'Three-point belts on the other hand are difficult to install and require certain structural features which may not be present in certain types of buses.'
In Germany, Western Australia and some states in the US, school buses must have seat belts.
MPs, meanwhile, said that apart from increased costs for bus operators and parents, they do not see why seat belts should not be made mandatory.
Said Central Singapore District Mayor Zainudin Nordin: 'Seat belts are compulsory in cars, so why are they not compulsory in other vehicles? It doesn't make sense because the dangers are the same for cars, vans or buses.'
ndianah@sph.com.sg
Special Report: Why I don't buckle up
It's time to kill five worst driving habits >>Page 29
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