MAY PEN, Clarendon — With one student fatally struck by a vehicle and another hit near her home, Vere Technical High School Principal O’Neil Lewin is pleading for a school bus system to be put in place to keep his charges safe.

He is unimpressed by the service being provided by current transport operators and believes reintroduction of the rural school bus service will provide a more wholesome environment for commuting students.

“We were a part of the safe school bus system where the Jamaica Urban Transit Company [JUTC] used to provide transportation, and that used to impact a significant number of students here. However, that was discontinued and now we have challenges with the quality of the service we are getting from the taxis and buses,” Lewin bemoaned.”

“We find that the taxis and buses are overcrowded, the type of music being played [is inappropriate], and the students are gravitating towards this kind of operation. They also wait in the evenings for specific vehicles… to transport them. The environment is more of a dancehall kind of let-loose environment — and it is not good because when the students get to school they are not settled; they are ‘hyped up’,” he added.

He is hoping the JUTC service will be reintroduced into Clarendon soon, as recently indicated by Transport Minister Daryl Vaz.

Marla Richards, an 11-year-old student of the school, died on Tuesday from injuries received after being hit by a vehicle as she attempted to cross a street to get home. According to the police report, the incident happened sometime after 4:00 pm.

It was reported that a Toyota Hiace bus was travelling south along the Kemps Hill main road and, as it neared the junction with Joe Walters Street in Race Course, Richards exited another vehicle coming from the opposite direction. As she attempted to cross the road the young girl reportedly walked into the path of the Hiace. She was transported to hospital where she was pronounced dead.

When Lewin heard of the incident he initially thought it was the same one he had gotten word of earlier.

“A student was standing by the sidewalk when a taxi got out of hand and hit her and pushed her into the drain. The taxi driver took her to the hospital where she was treated and released without any serious injuries,” the principal told the Jamaica Observer. ”

When he received a second call that one of his students had died after being hit by a vehicle, he was confused.

“Initially I thought it was the first accident, which was already reported, however I got confirmation later that that was a totally different accident. When I visited the Lionel Town hospital it was so traumatic because the child was actually hit at her gate — which was in front of Kemps Hill High School — when that incident happened,” the school administrator said.

He is expecting a team from the ministry to assist with grief counselling, which is standard protocol in these cases.

On Wednesday, vice-chairman of the National Road Safety Council Dr Lucien Jones said the latest fatality brings into sharp focus the matter of vulnerable road users and the issue of road safety.

“Since this year 271 people have died on our roads, the majority of them vulnerable road users — 48 pedestrians, 12 pedal cyclists, and 98 travelling on a motorcycle (89 drivers and nine pillion passengers). We are doing better than last year — 11 per cent down — but we’re not doing well in respect of the mandate to cut the number of fatalities on our roads by 50 per cent by 2030, as mandated by the United Nations and WHO,” Jones said in a release to the media.

He stressed that children should be taught, at school and at home, how to properly cross the roads; speeding must not be allowed in built-up areas; there should be increased public education campaigns on proper road use; and cameras should be installed to detect breaches so offenders can be warned and fined.