Between May 1 and 12, traffic police officers across Uzbekistan recorded 170 violations involving the transportation of preschool-age children (under seven years old) in overcrowded vehicles. The information was shared by Zoyir Yuldashev, spokesman to the Road Safety Service under the Interior Ministry.
In total, those 170 vehicles were carrying 3,872 children — an average of 23 per vehicle.
In one case from Syrdarya province, a driver whose license had been revoked was transporting 23 children in a Damas minivan. In Namangan, an unlicensed driver was found carrying 18 children in the same model of vehicle — and was stopped while driving on the wrong side of the road. When traffic officers went to inform the kindergarten director, she met them with physical aggression and verbal abuse.
As reported earlier this week, in Bukhara province, a drunk driver was transporting 40 children in an Isuzu bus and initially refused to comply when officers signaled him to pull over.
In a separate incident in Navoiy province, a Matiz - a sub-compact model - overturned while carrying 14 children, including the driver's three-month-old infant. The driver, who was also the director of the kindergarten and did not hold a valid license, was killed. The children were hospitalized with various injuries.
Yuldashev also told about another case in which 18 children were transported in a GM Spark, a similarly compact vehicle.
He emphasized that such violations occur primarily in private and family-run kindergartens, and stressed that responsibility for children's safety rests not only with school administrators, but also with parents. He urged parents not to allow their children to board a vehicle they can see is already full. In the case of a Damas minivan, that legal capacity is just six passengers — and children are not permitted to ride in the front seat.
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