Traffic police issue safety guidelines to schools

The City traffic police on Monday issued safety guidelines to schools operating in the Central Business District (CBD).

The police met representatives of 56 schools mostly in central Bengaluru as part of the ‘Safe Road to School’ (SRTS), a campaign launched in 2005. They directed the schools to implement the guidelines once the new academic year takes off.

“We wanted to stress on the safety of schoolchildren on roads in and around their schools. Hence, we convened a meeting and discussed the issue at length,” Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) M A Saleem said. Ensuring children’s safety while they travel to school and return home has become a major concern for the police and parents as well, he said.

Viable means
A lot of congestion is witnessed before and after school hours, posing problems to children and other road users as well.

Viable means will end the problem and also ensure the children’s safety. In this direction, the police suggested a few means to the school managements, said Saleem.

Guidelines
The guidelines issued are:
The school managements should cooperate with the local police to ensure decongestion of roads before and after school hours; should ensure adequate space inside the school campus to park private vehicles ferrying children; should encourage parents to depend on public transport to send their wards to schools; should discourage use of private vehicles by children and their parents; should appoint school staff/private staff and direct them to work in tandem with the local police to ensure safe crossing of roads by children before and after school hours; should implement the children safety guidelines issued by the Supreme Court; should send drivers of school vehicles for safe and protective driving classes conducted by driving centres.