A Kandivli school has come up with a quick solution to reduce the time taken to evacuate students from a school bus in case of an emergency by more than half. While old school buses had their emergency door at the back of the vehicle, the new ones have doors in the middle. One major problem that the Children's Academy School encountered during its evacuation drills during the Christmas vacations was the height of the door from the ground.
However, they have found a solution: A ladder.
Rohan Bhatt, chairman of the Children's Academy group of schools, said, "We undertook safety drills and found that it was too time-consuming and dangerous for children to jump from a height of 4 or 5 feet. After we fitted a ladder under the emergency door, the time taken for evacuation reduced from four and a half minutes to one and a half minutes."
Echoing the sentiments of Bhatt, Anjali Bowen, Ryan International School, Kandivli, said, "I agree that the height of the emergency door is more and needs to be modified. But now there are new school buses whose emergency doors are not so high and so are much more accessible."
However, the School Bus Owner's Association has a different viewpoint. Anil Garg, chairperson of the association, said, "Emergency doors at the back of the school bus are always safe. Fitting an emergency door just where students sit is a bit unsafe and installing a ladder there will weaken the model. I agree that the door is at a height, but at the time of evacuation people come forward to help children, so that should not be an issue."
The Mumbai District School Bus Safety Committee had recently held a meeting on safety issues in school buses recently with police commissioner Rakesh Maria.
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