Despite repeated instructions given by the district administration and traffic police, schools in Ranchi does not seem to be serious with regard to the safety of children while carrying them home on school buses.
In yet another incident of negligence on part of school administration, a bus driver who was reportedly drunk on Monday, lost control over the bus carrying children in it and rammed into a Maruti car also damaging at least four two-wheelers parked on the other side of the Radium Road.
Eyewitnesses claimed that both the driver and cleaner of the bus escaped immediately after the incident while another bus was called from the school to take children back home.
“A school bus of Adarsh Vidya Mandir in Kokar was coming from Kutchery side at around 2 pm. All of a sudden it got uncontrolled and rammed into a Maruti 800 car parked on the other side of the road also damaging my bike which was parked beside the car outside my office,” said an eyewitness Vivek Kumar. The bus stopped after it hit hard on the boundary wall of the campus of Army also touching a tree nearby, he said.
“Had the tree been fallen on the bus, several children would have got injured,” said the eyewitness. later someone called up the school administration following which another bus was sent to take the children home,” said the eyewitness.
Vice Principal of Adarsh Vidya Mandir Manish Vishal, on the other hand, claimed that the bus driver was not drunk but he lost control over the bus as its wheel skidded as soon as it got down the road while overtaking a vehicle.
“The driver kept himself out of the scene as he had got frightened. We will issue a show-cause notice to the bus driver seeking an explanation on the issue,” said Vishal. It was an accident due to heavy rain having no fault of the driver, he added.
Police said that no any case so far has been registered in this regard with the police as nobody has come forward with his complaint in this regard.
“No one has come to file any complaint in this regard. Meanwhile, the bus has been dragged on the side so that the traffic does not get disrupted,” said officer in Charge of Kotwali Police Station. Not a single child was hurt in the incident and were immediately sent to their homes by calling another bus from the same school, he added.
The district administration officials, however, said that despite the advisory issued to the school administrations to abide by the safety norms, they were not paying heed to it resulting into such incidents.
“We have already directed the school administration to install speed governors in their school buses but barring one or
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Drunk driving: Close shave for kids as school bus ploughs into vehicles
two schools, they are not doing it,” said Ranchi District Transport Officer Nagendra Paswan. He said that the school will be issued notices by taking cognizance in this regard.
Incidentally, following the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court, the District Administration and Regional Transport Authority (RTA) had issued instructions to the schools in the State Capital to adopt safety procedures in school buses plying in the city.
Meanwhile, the Traffic Police also conducts special drives to check safety norms in school buses, also examining bus drivers with breath analyzers from time to time.
“We also examine drivers with breath analyzers from time to time as was done some two-three weeks ago, but due to bad weather it has been stopped for the time being so that the children do not have to face problem in reaching home,” said Ranchi Traffic SP Sanjay Ranjan Singh. Several school buses were penalized recently during a special drive conducted by the Traffic DSP during which one or some of the drunk drivers were also caught and action was taken against them, he added.