Thailand - April 2, 2018

The Core Group Bus team held its first meeting at the Road Safety Policy Foundation, where group participants, including four Legal Development Program (LDP) members, shared ideas and discussed plans to improve school bus safety through legislative solutions. According to data gathered by the Road Safety Policy Foundation, in 2017 there were 30 school bus-related crashes. Seven children died and 363 were injured; of these, 22 suffered serious injuries. The majority of these crashes were caused by overloaded buses, lack of school bus aides, substandard after-market vehicle modifications, or poorly maintained vehicles.

The meeting represented the group’s first step towards tackling the unsafe school transport service, a persistent problem in Thailand due to inadequate safety standards and lack of government oversight. Members of the group include representatives from the LDP, the Road Safety Policy Foundation, the Foundation for Consumers, Thailand Development Research Institute, the National Metal and Materials Technology Center, and AIP Foundation.