Legislators, children’s rights advocates and government officials have yet to reach a consensus over whether the government should cancel restrictions on the use of school buses, with some saying that an amendment to the Highway Act (公路法) was designed to benefit bus operators.
The amendment was proposed after the Ministry of Education placed restrictions on vehicles used to carry kindergarten and elementary-school students, requiring buses to have been in operation for less than 10 years or be replaced with new ones.
The regulations have created problems for many kindergarten operators, whose businesses have already suffered because of the nation’s declining birth rate, making them unwilling to pay more for expensive buses imported from overseas because of the 10-year rule.
Buses produced in Taiwan fail to meet the nation’s emission standards.
A proposed amendment to Article 63 of the Highway Act brought by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators on the legislature’s Transportation Committee secured preliminary approval.
However, due to the controversies surrounding the bill, lawmakers agreed in the plenary session on Friday last week to wait on further negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties.
DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said the ministry only regulates school buses according to the vehicles’ age.
She said the ministry does not take into account the vehicles’ body structure, durability and safety index, adding that this policy forces kindergarten and elementary schools to replace the buses that might have a service life of more than 10 years.
This would make the education providers less willing to spend extra money buying durable and solid buses, prefering to turn to cheaper, less-durable vehicles instead, creating a less safe transport option for students, Yeh said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) said the act affects the safety of hundreds of thousands of children.
Ko said the age of a vehicle is the most fundamental requirement for buses used to carry children, adding however that the age factor is not the best way to manage school buses or the only criterion to gauge the safety of a vehicle.
The government should not take the matter lightly, as buses carry children who are unable to react quickly to emergency situations most of the time, Ko said.
Jing Chuan Child Safety Foundation executive director Lin Yue-chin (林月琴) accused lawmakers of proposing the amendment to curry favor from bus operators, adding that lawmakers should consider the consequences of using unsafe buses.
The ministry said it needs to ascertain whether the Highway Act is applicable in the regulation of school buses, as it also stipulates an age limit for buses with authorization from the Protection of Children and Youth Welfare and Rights Act (兒童及少年福利與權益保障法).
The ministry said it had consulted legal experts, who said that setting an age limit for school buses is necessary, as the passengers are preschool or school-aged children.
However, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said that one cannot equate the age of a vehicle with its safety.
It said schools could choose the best bus company to work with based on multiple factors if the government lifts the restrictions on the use of the motor vehicles based on their age.
The factors could include the records of the bus company’s drivers, its buses used to carry children and its management of operations, it said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS