“Anutin”, Minister of Interior, revealed that it is the royal grace of “The King and Queen” who are concerned and accept the victims of the school bus fire incident in Uthai Thani under royal patronage. The Ministry of Interior is ready to provide maximum compensation. The Insurance Office will provide more than 1 million baht per case. He disagrees with the cancellation of the “field trip”, pointing out that it is not the cause, but the cause is the quality of the vehicle and the standards of the driver.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, Mr. Anutin Charnvirakul, as the Director of the Road Safety Operation Center (RSOC), said after the disaster announcement that how will compensation be considered? In this incident, regarding assistance under the Disaster Act, we will help with moral support. The Insurance Office has initially reported that there will be approximately 1 million baht per person to compensate for these damages. Therefore, I asked again that there must be no more conditions beca
use no matter how much, it is not worth the loss. However, we must expedite the payment of this compensation as soon as possible. The Prime Minister has ordered that this incident has caused a lot of damage and is at a high level of severity. Therefore, the compensation criteria must find a way to provide the highest level of compensation.
As for the age of the bus, which is 54 years old, Mr. Anutin said that it is a matter for the Ministry of Transport. As for the Ministry of Interior, they will look into the matter of providing care for the family and organizing an event that is worthy of their honor.
On this occasion, it was informed in advance that His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen were concerned and saddened by the incident that had occurred. They would take over the management of all the work under royal patronage. There would be a royal cremation for those who lost their lives, which the Ministry of Interior considered a royal graciousness. I have ordered the Governor of Uthai Thani Prov
ince to manage the work site in a manner befitting the deceased, who were both teachers and students.
The part where we supervise the Ministry of Education, there is a debate about canceling the field trip. Mr. Anutin stated that he has heard this many times. When there is an incident, he heard it a lot yesterday. He thinks that the field trip is not the cause of this accident. The cause of this accident is the standard of the driver, the standard of the travel formation, the quality of the vehicle. In this case, we have to go and see because he saw with his own eyes why there are so many gas tanks in one bus. He counted and saw that there were ten tanks. He does not know because he has never been in the Department of Land Transport. He has to go and see what the law stipulates. There are gas tanks from the front, middle, back, and side of the vehicle. What are they traveling for? Are they planning to stop or rest? Looking at it from the perspective of a former supervising engineer, he thinks that there shou
ld be a steel plate to prevent sparks from reaching the body. It should be safer. It should be a safe area. He is confident that our Department of Land Transport already has the standards. But we do not know how this vehicle was inspected. The police will have to investigate and expand the investigation. But what he saw yesterday, asked if it was safe or not, he confirmed that it was definitely not safe.
As the leader of a political party, will we drive this issue to amend the law in the parliament? Mr. Anutin emphasized that this is not a political matter. It is everyone’s duty. We must help create the highest level of safety for our children. As I said, field trips are a good thing. Otherwise, children would just be in the classroom, seeing everything from pictures, not the real thing. But how can we organize it well? Actually, there are rules. We can coordinate to ask for a police car to lead. Highway cars can lead. We must set the speed limit, the adults in the car who can help the children, and set the
number of drivers. In yesterday’s case, there was one car, one person, nothing at all. There was no assistant driver. There were no officers who knew the car. There were only teachers and students. When the incident happened, the driver ran down to check first. There was no assistant to get out to unlock the emergency door. He kicked out the window to make it an emergency lane. It is clear that there was a violation.
Source: Thai News Agency