Parents blame school for mishap in Mumbai

A day later, parents of the Standard V children, who were hurt on their way back from a study tour to Kolhapur on Wednesday, charged that the shoddy transport arrangements by the Thane-based Universal High School led to the mishap at Lonavla. The three-day tour started on Monday and the students were to return at 9 pm on Wednesday.

This, even as some parents claimed that had the school not termed the tour as “compulsory”, they wouldn’t have sent their wards. The school denied the trip was compulsory.

One of the four study-tour buses, carrying 40 students, met with a mishap, injuring 11 students and two teachers. While four of the 11 hurt students were brought back to Thane the same night and admitted to Jupiter Hospital, others were admitted to Nigdi hospital and Panvel’s MGM Hospital with minor injuries and discharged after first-aid.

“When we went to drop our children on Monday, we saw that the bus arrangement was not up to the mark. When we complained, the school assured us that they will be replaced with better buses after Pune,” said Manohar Dumbre, relative of a student Vinay Jadhav, 10.

While school spokesperson Rohit Tikmany countered the claim, saying the buses had been checked for safety and security before the trip, Dumre said, “Though the buses were changed later on, we feel the teachers in the bus should have monitored the driver, who was too overworked to undertake the long journey.”