Summer Safety

[Anchor Lead]

Two years ago in Gwangju, a kindergartener fell into a coma after being trapped in a hot school bus. After this accident all kindergarten buses were installed with safety bells, but many of them have been disabled to conserve battery life. Here’s more.

[Pkg]

When children get off from the kindergarten van, the driver turns off the ignition. The alarm keeps beeping until the driver checks all the seats and presses the safety bell. This is the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education's solution to the accident in which a kindergartener got trapped inside the school bus two years ago. But there is a suspicious-looking device on the dashboard. When a button is pushed, the power supply to the safety bell is cut off.

[Soundbite] (Kindergarten Van Driver (Voice Modified)) : "I press this when I have to park for a long time. (The bell doesn't work when you press this?) No, it doesn't."

Inside another kindergarten van... a strange wire is found underneath the steering wheel.

[Soundbite] (Kindergarten Van Driver (Voice Modified)) : "I just open the cover and pull it out. Then the fuse goes out. I disabled the fuse because it was inconvenient."

More cunning ways are being used to bypass the safety system after KBS had reported in January 2017, that the power supply to the safety bells can be cut off simply with a switch. Blocking the power supply is to conserve the vehicle's battery. When KBS started its investigation, education authorities said it would start inspecting the school vans with the Korea Transportation Safety Authority. In order for the safety efforts implemented following a child's death in Dongducheon to be effective, additional measures need to be put in place for the safety systems to work properly.