Bangalore schools vow to crack down on erring drivers

The death of 13-year-old Abhilash, a standard seven student of St Philomena’s School, in a bus accident, served as a wake up call for several schools in the city.

In order to put in place a safe and secure transport system for their students, many Bangalore schools were planning to revamp their transport facilities.

As the bus accident, involving about 35 students of St. Philomena’s School, was caused due to the alleged negligence of the bus driver, schools are planning to crack their whips first on erring drivers.

Most of the schools this newspaper spoke to, said strict action — including termination — would be initiated against drivers who neglected their duty.

The schools were also planning to ensure that drivers maintain highest degree of responsibility. Several schools might install CCTV inside the buses to check the behaviour of on-duty drivers and van boys.

A few schools would hold special counselling sessions for drivers with the help of traffic police. Random checks would be conducted to ensure that all facilities were in place. Schools said that regular repairing and servicing of buses was also on the cards.

“It’s sad that a boy had died and several other children injured because of a negligent driver. We will soon overhaul our bus system facilities. We are planning to conduct counselling sessions for drivers to make them more responsible,” said Manjula Raman, principal of the Army Public School.

While several Bangalore schools owned their own fleet of buses, many children have been travelling by buses run by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation. Several others, however, preferred privately-owned vehicles.

All schools, this correspondent spoke to, said their buses were equipped with speed governors and support staff, and drivers have been provided mobile phones to ensure easy monitoring of each route. Schools such as the Delhi Public School (DPS) South, Bangalore, have installed Global Positioning System in their buses to help parents keep track of the buses.

“Safety and security of children are our outmost concern. We have eight buses, run by private companies. In each bus, one or two teachers travel with the children to keep a check on the driver and van boy. We also give our buses for regular servicing,” said Shantha Chandran, principal of National Public School (NPS), Indiranagar.

Meanwhile, a few schools were trying to make parents shoulder the responsibility of ensuring the security of their wards. “Most of the schools don’t have huge infrastructural facilities to take care of every child, as they travel from one corner of the city to another. If a child is small, we want parents to drop-off and pick-up their wards from school,” said a school principal, who requested anonymity.
The parents, however, felt that schools should be responsible for students’ safety.