Following the tragedy in Taichung last week in which a three-year-old boy who was forgotten on a school bus died from heat and suffocation after six hours, a legislator introduced a standard operating procedure checklist yesterday.
Standard procedures for issues such as the selection of bus drivers and vehicle inspections already exist, but an enforcement mechanism was apparently lacking, according to Wei Lung-sheng (
"Such procedures are written on documents that people put away in file cabinets," said KMT Legislator John Wu (
Requirements on the checklist include a school bus vehicle checkup form for drivers to fill out and a list to record attendance or absence on the bus.
The record should then be given to the teacher at the day-care center and verified, according to the checklist.
In addition, a reason must be given if a school bus fails to pick up or drop off a child. If a child's parents are not at home during a drop-off, the teacher must contact the parents and arrange for the parents to pick the child up at the day-care center.
The checklist also requires the teacher on the bus to do a head count when children board or leave the bus, and to check whether any children or belongings have been left behind before the bus leaves.
The list specifies that the driver must also double-check and clean out the bus before leaving the day-care center.
The suffocation of the three-year-old boy inside a school bus last week was not the first incident in which a child was forgotten inside a bus. Last year, a five-year-old girl who was also left on a school bus died after enduring scalding heat for seven hours.
"Child safety is something everybody needs to be concerned about," Wu said.
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