Public anxiety is growing over the continued occurrence of accidents where a child is left alone in a school bus for children during a heat wave. Efforts are currently underway to prevent any reoccurrence of such accidents as shown by the recent amendment to the Road Traffic Act where installation of checking devices in school buses for children was made mandatory, etc.

In the case of an operator of a school bus for children, however, despite the fact that such a person has an obligation to educate the driver and guardian passenger of such a bus as well as taking the overall responsibility for the occurrence of an accident, there has been criticism that such an operator does not make the best efforts to prevent such an accident because there are no legal sanctions that may be imposed in terms of kindergarten operation even after an occurrence of a safety accident.

Therefore, this proposal aims to impose legal sanctions in terms of kindergarten operation by issuing an order for the suspension of operation or closedown of a kindergarten to any operator of a school bus for children where there is negligence in fulfilling the obligation to check whether all children or infants have gotten off after operation of the school bus, which results in a child or infant’s death or grave bodily harm (Article 32).

Article 32 (Closedown, etc., of Kindergartens) 4. In case an accident caused by violation of Article 53, paragraphs 4 and 5 of the Road Traffic Act results in the death or grave bodily harm, as defined by Ordinance of the Ministry of Education, of a child on board a school bus for children, the competent agency may order the closedown or suspension of operation of the subject kindergarten for a period of up to one year.