Exert caution, education institutions told

The district administration has instructed all educational institutions to take safety measures while ferrying students between schools and homes.

Following the accident involving a school bus belonging to BGS School near Marasanahalli in Chikkaballpur on Monday, the district administration held a meeting in this regard at the Deputy Commissioner’s office in the City on Tuesday.

The meeting was attended by the heads of the various educational institutions and also, by the officials of the Department of Public Instruction.

Importance to detail

Addressing the meeting, Deputy Commissioner Dr N Manjula said the educational institutions must study in detail the background, qualification, experience and all the other details of the drivers and the other staff members of the transport and other related departments, before recruiting them.

There should not be any negligence or lack of interest with regards to transportation. The schoolchildren should be picked and dropped with utmost care and responsibility, the Deputy Commissioner said.

The Marasanahalli accident should be an eye-opener for everyone. The BGS education institute and others involved are responsible for the accident. The drivers should be extremely cautious while driving the vehicles carrying children.

Transportation violations

Violations like - handing over the vehicle for second party to drive, rash and negligent driving, not carrying necessary documents in vehicle, fitness conditions of the vehicles, skipping kids to pick and drop - all these details cannot be afforded to be ignored by the drivers.

It was the responsibility of every educational institution in the district to ensure that the Marasanahalli incidents did not recur again.

Dr Manjula further said all the schools vehicles should be registered with the respective educational institutions. The driver should carry with him all the related documents.

The vehicles should display “School or College Bus” in bold letters. Speed governors should be installed in all the vehicles. They should not drive over 40 km per hour. The driver must have minimum five years of experience. The staff and the drivers of the Transport department of each school should possess good character.

Children’s security should be top priority for every school. They should not be put to any difficulties, the Deputy Commissioner said.

Preliminary investigations

Addressing the meeting, Superintendent of Police Dr T D Pawar said, preliminary investigations in the Marasanahalli accident has revealed that a staff of the BGS School horticulture department, Narayanswamy was driving the vehicle when the accident occurred.

The driver of the bus and Narayanswamy are both absconding. The police will nab the culprits soon and a case will be registered against them, he said.

He said, five of the accident victims are recovering at the Columbia Asia Hospital in Bangalore. All the members who were travelling in the vehicle, during the time of accident have had a providential escape, barring a few injuries to some of them. Most of them have been discharged after treatment, Pawar added.

Assistant Commissioner P Vasant Kumar, Tahsildar Poornima, Zilla Panchayat Joint Secretary Zulfikar, Regional Transport Department officer A Khan and several others were present on the occasion.