Fresh guidelines issued for students safety in Pune

With the tragic death of three-and-a-half-year-old Shiven Gupta, city schools have issued fresh guidelines for bus drivers regarding the safety of the children.

Shiven, a student of the Pawar Public School, died after falling off the school bus. The door of the bus opened when the driver suddenly applied brakes and he fell out of the bus.

With students’ safety as top priority, the authorities of Loyola High School, Pashan, on Friday issued safety guidelines to the bus drivers.

“The school has only one bus but there are other private buses that bring in the students,” said school principal, James Thorat. Thorat said, “The driver has to ensure that the bus doors are locked, the children are not standing when the bus is in motion, the bus should be in proper condition, the driver shouldn’t start the bus while a student is getting on or off the bus.

Besides, the driver should keep a copy of documents approved by the Regional Transport Office (RTO) with them all the time, he said.

Principal of Vidya Valley School, Nalini Sengupta said, “We have quite a few buses of our own and we issue fresh guidelines to them from time to time. Apart from that our teachers also travel in the same bus, so in a way we have discipline in the bus.”

“However, we have instructed the drivers to stop the bus if a child is misbehaving and inform me about the incident. I personally inform the parents concerned about their child’s behaviour,” she added.