A failure to comply with the regulations

Three accidents involving school buses recently causing two deaths and leaving many injured in another accident, once again raises the issue of installation of speed governors in school buses.

Although, a Supreme Court order issued in 2011 made it mandatory for all educational institutions to fit its vehicles with speed governors, the transport department is still to check if the existing school and college buses have complied by the rule. 

Joint transport commissioner Hemanth Kumar points out that all educational institutions have been directed to install speed governors in their buses at the earliest. “Now, a new vehicle is not registered unless it is fitted with a speed governor, that too only those speed governors which are certified by The Automotive Research Association of India,” he says.

Hemanth further states that in the Motor Vehicles Act, the speed governors apply only to M2 and M3 category of vehicles with a seating capacity of 13 passengers and above, excluding the driver.  He says that speed governors are largely tamper-proof. “Unless someone has a specific software, it cannot be meddled with. The inbuilt software ensures that the vehicle stops,” Hemanth adds.

Senior officers with the traffic police point out that not only private buses, even speeding school buses are a common sight on Hebbal Main Road, Tumkur Road, Hosur Road, Bellary Main Road and Old Madras Road. “They may not drive in a rash manner within the City but they surely overspeed on roads that are traffic-free. School buses loaded with children overtaking other vehicles are dangerous and we hope that speed governors will help curb this trend,” observes additional commissioner of police (traffic) B Dayanand. Dayanand says school  managements should take the Supreme Court ruling seriously. “If school buses are found exceeding the speed limit, they are caught and fined for overspeeding and a case is booked against them,” he adds.

Speed governors cost anywhere between Rs 15,000 and Rs 22,000, depending on the type of vehicle.

Another senior official with the transport department says, “Speed governors will not allow vehicles to go beyond the set speed due to which, vehicles will get more mileage. They will also reduce the wear and tear of the tyres, engine and use less consumables like lubricants.” 

The educational institutions that have a large fleet of buses have taken the order seriously and have got their vehicles fitted with speed governors. The CMR Group of Institutions has a fleet of 35 buses and these all have speed governors. Sabitha
Ramamurthy, president, CMR Group of Institutions says, “We don’t want to compromise on the safety of children, therefore we got the speed governors fixed in all our existing buses and even on the new ones before they hit the road.”

Aaron Priyakumar, manager (transport) of Bishop Cotton Girls’ School, states that they too have spent nothing less than a lakh in getting speed governors fitted in all the eight school buses.

“We are not sure about the private vans that ferry children but the vans that are attached to the school have speed governors. Although it is a good move, the slow movement consumes a lot of diesel and sadly, the vehicles don’t get enough mileage,”
he concludes.