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september 3rd was the second day of school. before 7:30 in the morning, some sixth-grade students had gathered at the gate of foshan middle school. the scheduled arrival time was 8:00, and before that, the students waited outside the school.

tragedy soon occurred. the public security bureau of dongping county, shandong province, issued a police report stating that at 7:27 on september 3, a bus company's vehicle carrying students lost control when it reached the t-junction of xuchang road in dongping county, killing 11 parents and students on the roadside (including 6 parents and 5 students), 1 person was in critical condition, and 12 people were in stable condition.

liu ran, a graduate of foshan middle school, said she recognized from the online video that the vehicle involved in the accident was a customized bus used by students of the school. many students came from nearby towns and villages, and the bus picked up and dropped off students along the way.

customized buses are different from ordinary school buses. an industry insider who is engaged in customized car services in beijing told the paper that school bus services have strict regulations and requirements for both vehicles and drivers. for example, school bus drivers must obtain school bus driving qualifications and have more than three years of driving experience, but there is currently no unified industry standard for customized campus bus drivers.

"entry time"

foshan middle school, where the incident occurred, was named after the white foshan mountain in the north of the county. on september 2, foshan middle school’s wechat official account published a welcome article for the new semester, saying that in order to ensure that the children can enter school in an orderly manner, the school has formulated a comprehensive work plan, and multiple departments have worked together to make detailed preparations for the students before the start of school.

photos released on the official wechat account of dongping county foshan middle school on september 2.

foshan middle school is located at the intersection of foshan street and xuchang road. liu ran said that the school is facing a t-junction, with the main gate at the intersection, and the passage for students is separated from the road by a green belt.

liu ran's younger brother is a sixth-grade student at foshan middle school. he told her that at around 7:30 a.m. on september 3, senior students were lining up to enter the school. he had already arrived at the school gate and was walking to the front to check the class division when he suddenly heard a "bang" behind him. at first he thought it was the sound of blasting and mining nearby, but when he looked back, he realized that there was a car accident. later, he learned that two classmates in his class were injured in the accident.

fan junjie, a student at another middle school in dongping county, relayed his mother's memories to the paper. on the morning of september 3, his mother rode an electric bike to send him to school. on her way home, she passed by the gate of foshan middle school and saw the bike suddenly rush into the crowd. it was not yet 8 o'clock, and many students and parents were standing at the school gate waiting for it to open. later, many people gathered around, and soon an ambulance and police arrived.

staff at the blood donation center at dongping county cinema told jimu news that after the car accident, many citizens spontaneously went to the blood donation center to donate blood, and there were two blood donation vehicles working.

fan junjie said that the middle school he attended in dongping county only opened after 7 a.m. the school changed its long-standing school rules because of this accident. "we were not allowed to arrive early, but now if we arrive early, we have to go to the classroom. the school opens half an hour earlier, for fear that something might happen if we stay outside."

xu tingyu attends the experimental middle school in dongping county. she said that her middle school opens at 7 a.m. and students usually arrive at the school gate at 6:50 a.m. "it's not good to arrive too early, and it's not good to arrive too late either."

on april 2, 2021, the ministry of education issued the "notice on further strengthening sleep management for primary and secondary school students", which mentioned that provincial education administrative departments should ensure that students have adequate sleep needs and reasonably determine the work and rest time of primary and secondary schools based on actual conditions. primary school classes generally start no earlier than 8:20 in the morning, and middle schools generally start no earlier than 8:00.

after this, schools in some provinces proposed “refusing to arrive at school early and going to and from school safely”.

liu ran analyzed that the people who had the accident at the gate of foshan middle school were mainly primary school students and sixth graders, because they did not enter the school until 8 o'clock, while the students from the first to third grade of junior high school entered the school at more than 7 o'clock.

yang bin is from tai'an, and his friend's child is in the second grade of junior high school at foshan middle school. as far as he knows, some schools in dongping county have set up "road duty teams": during school hours, students and parents take turns standing in line at the school gate to maintain order and protect the safety of students. in other words, if there are students who arrive early, they will line up at the gate to wait for admission, and the road duty team will maintain order.

a search by a reporter from the paper found that in 2023, a parent of an alumnus posted a video of foshan middle school's "road guard" on a social platform. in the video, students can be seen lining up outside the school gate to enter the campus.

who will regulate customized school buses?

according to the on-site videos and pictures, the vehicle involved was a bus with the words "dongping county dongyuan public transport co., ltd." and "maximum capacity: 52 passengers" printed on the body of the bus.

liu ran recalled that when she was in school, this type of school bus could drive directly to the entrance of the student's community. she said that customized buses are usually booked by the school and the bus company. some local students also said that this type of customized bus can be contacted by parents who are inconvenient to pick up their children.

an industry insider who is engaged in customized car services in beijing told the paper that school bus services have strict regulations and requirements for both vehicles and drivers. for example, school bus drivers must obtain a school bus driving qualification and have more than three years of driving experience, but there are currently no industry standards for customized campus bus drivers.

in the "specialized school bus safety technical conditions" promulgated by the state in 2012, a special school bus is a small car specially used to transport children or students, and is subdivided into special school buses for children, special school buses for primary school students, and special school buses for middle school students; in addition, according to the "school bus safety management regulations" and other regulations, school bus drivers need to undergo special pre-job training, and are not allowed to drive school buses without school bus driving qualifications. in addition to vehicle operating organizations, schools also have special management responsibilities for school buses, and are prohibited from using vehicles that do not have school bus signs to provide services.

the reporter of the paper learned that there are only two bus companies in dongping county, one is the dongping branch of tai'an transportation group established in april 2003, and the other is dongyuan bus company established in march 2012. as of 2023, the former company has 127 employees, while the latter has only 37.

dongyuan bus's official account said, "in recent years, the company has given priority to developing customized bus services, opening a number of customized bus routes for county towns and urban and rural students, which has greatly alleviated the problem of road traffic congestion when picking up and dropping off students, ensuring that students arrive at school safely. at the same time, it promotes the customized bus services for commuter buses of various enterprises and institutions, and undertakes various customized bus services such as family wedding banquets and household chores all year round."

a staff member of taian transportation group said that this customized bus service is equivalent to renting a car by phone, and now all bus companies have this service, for example, for school students to travel together, or for company employees to commute to work.

he said that there are several routes available for customized passenger transport services in the local area, which span urban areas and towns and have planned stops. usually, a one-way trip in the city costs at least 15 yuan. if you want to charter a bus on your own route, the cost is generally more than 400 yuan; the drivers of their company are all uniformly trained bus drivers, and the buses on several customized routes are also used by transportation companies.

tianyancha app shows that dongping county dongyuan public transport co., ltd. has a registered capital of 500,000 yuan. its business scope includes road passenger transport station operation, school bus operation services, urban public transportation, etc. it is wholly owned by shandong tai'an world expo agricultural technology co., ltd. tai'an world expo agriculture was formerly known as shandong dongping transportation and tourism development co., ltd. and was established in september 2009. from the equity relationship diagram, it can be seen that although the company is called an agricultural company, the businesses of its related companies are all related to transportation, including two driver training institutions.

equity relationship diagram tianyancha

since 2016, the company has been sued five times for motor vehicle traffic accident liability disputes. in march this year, the company expanded its business scope to include school bus operation services.

as of press time, the reporter was unable to contact dongyuan bus company staff to respond to questions such as driver qualifications.

the aforementioned tai'an transportation staff also mentioned that if a school comes to their company to customize a school bus, it is usually a yellow school bus with 12 or 15 seats, and the bus must be equipped with a patrolman, who is also an employee of the transportation group.

after the accident, sanitation workers used a sprinkler truck to clean the ground, and the bus was towed away by a tow truck. as of now, the driver has been detained by the public security authorities, and the cause of the accident is under investigation.

(yang bin, liu ran, xu tingyu, and fan junjie are pseudonyms)