Iran's Student Camps Travel at Night Banned

A member of the Education and Research Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly announced the amendment of the regulations for student camps, stating that from now on, the movement of student camps will be prohibited from 11 PM to 5 AM. Fatemeh Saidi made this announcement on Saturday (October 21) in an interview with ISNA news agency. This amendment comes after a bus carrying students from Hormozgan to Shiraz overturned in September of this year, resulting in the deaths of several students. According to Saidi, based on this amendment, male instructors can also participate in female student camps, and the departure time for buses carrying students is restricted from 11 PM to 5 AM. The representative stated that at the inauguration of the center for monitoring inter-provincial student travel, it was announced that from now on, the movement of student buses will be monitored and controlled through systems, and this center will maintain constant contact with the driver and instructor. She added that parents of students can also obtain necessary information regarding bus stops and their locations through a designated phone number. This representative welcomed the cooperation of the traffic police and the Ministry of Education in this regard and expressed hope that the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development would also take measures to ensure road safety. Referring to the deaths of several Hormozgani students heading to Shiraz in a bus accident caused by driver fatigue, she noted that 'significant costs were incurred to amend the regulations and coordinate the Ministry of Education with the traffic police.' This member of the Education and Research Commission identified 'unsafe roads, lack of traffic police oversight, and gaps and deficiencies in the regulations for student camps' as factors contributing to the accident involving Hormozgani students. In the bus overturning incident on September 1, seven students, one instructor, and the bus driver lost their lives, and 30 others were injured, with two students suffering amputations. Following this incident, Abdolmajid Afandi, Vice President of the Association of Passenger Transport Companies in Bandar Abbas, announced that the driver of the affected bus did not have the names of his passengers and that the bus had 45 occupants instead of the 32 it was licensed for. Mohammad Hossein Hamidi, head of the traffic police, also cited 'the driver's lack of attention due to fatigue and drowsiness' as the primary cause of the accident. He stated that the only person wearing a seatbelt on the bus was the driver, which was reported to be due to driver monitoring through the Sepahatan system. According to Hamidi, injured students reported that 'when passing a police station, the driver would tell them to unbuckle their seatbelts and would inform them when to buckle up again before the next police station.' Following this incident, the Ministry of Education announced the suspension of night travel for students until the guidelines for holding student camps and visits are reviewed. In recent years, dozens of students participating in school camps have been killed in traffic accidents. For instance, in 2012, 26 female students from Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province died in an accident involving a bus heading to war zones from the Iran-Iraq war known as 'Raheeyan Noor.' Last year, a bus carrying students from Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari overturned on its way back from Mashhad, resulting in the deaths of two students.