Despite mishaps, no lessons learnt

A month after the Sarjapur Road which claimed an eight-year-old's life, another school bus topples over, but officials play the blame game

Despite mishaps, no lessons learnt

A month after the Sarjapur Road which claimed an eight-year-old's life, another school bus topples over, but officials play the blame game

Just a month after a school bus belonging to St Philomena English School met with an accident and claimed the life of an eight-year-old boy, another school bus toppled near Chikballapur yesterday, claiming the life of the cleaner.

Distressed, hurt: The injured kids were taken to Chikballapur
Government Hospital where they were underwent treatment

But despite the dangers, city schools fail to provide experienced drivers to ferry kids around town. Following yesterday's incident, concerned departments expressed their failure to curb the rising accidents involving school buses. MiD DAY had earlier reported about the incident (Student pays with life for bus driver's mistake, December 16, 2010)

Who's responsible?
Bhaskar Rao, commissioner of transport, said, "The schools own the buses and therefore it becomes their responsibility. The school management seems to escape while police book cases against the drivers."

He added, "We can only subject the vehicles to fitness certificate tests. My role is inanimate, I cannot control who drives the vehicle. I can sensitise the issue just once or twice but these schools are overcharging parents and the school lets gardeners and plumbers drive the buses. Are they not responsible?"

B A Mahesh, superintendent of police, said, "we can look into it in only specific cases. We cannot check every school for errant drivers. We cannot comment any further on this."

Kumar Naik, principal secretary, Primary and Secondary Education, said, "When such unfortunate events occur we will definitely ask for an explanation. When such reports come to us, it's only then that we really look into it." He added, "We'll issue a notice to the school asking for an explanation soon."

Near miss

Around 60 students from BGS School in Chikballapur had the fright of their lives when on Monday the bus toppled on National Highway 7. Narayanswamy, the driver, a welder by profession, was speeding at 100 kmph.

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