There are Opinions and Expectations of the Mothers in Safe School Transportation: A Qualitative Study

Aim: To identify the opinions of mothers on safe school transportation.Material and Methods: The study that was conducted with qualitative methodology, wasconducted with mothers whose children were using school transport for at least one year.Innterviews were done with 13 mothers that was included in the study by snowball samplingtechnique and a semi-structured interview form was used. The interviews have been recordedon audio tape recorder. The content analysis was carried out after transcription of raw data.Ethical principles were followed in the study.Results: The mothers stated that the school vehicle driver needs to have some features. Themothers have reported that the vehicle needs to be brand new and newer than five years, tohave school transportation vehicle features, and to be designed special to age groups. Themothers wanted that controlled stop-start should be done and should be punctual. They statedthat traffic rules must be obeyed and an hostess must be assigned. The mothers reported thatchildren and parents should be brought together, the vehicle should exactly stop in front ofthe house and the stop-starts should be done in a controlled way while children was gettingout of the vehicle.Conclusion: It is required that the school vehicle driver and the vehicle should have certainfeatures, the driver should comply with the traffic rules and take safety precautions duringboarding to, traveling in and getting out of the school vehicle. Training programs conductedwith the cooperation of the school transportation firms and school administration couldcontribute to safe school transportation.