An LKG student of a private school sustaining injuries after falling out of a moving school bus through its emergency door at Edathala on Thursday evening has sent shock waves among parents. A similar incident had been reported from Pallikkara, another town in the suburbs, a month ago.
This has in turn prompted the Commission for Protection of Child Rights to register a suo motu case, while District Collector Renu Raj has sought a report from the police and the Deputy Director of Education based on reports that the bus crew did not provide adequate aftercare to the child.
Both the students were lucky and escaped with injuries since the buses were moving at relatively low speed, while timely intervention of people of the two localities in warning other motorists helped avert a tragedy. A CCTV footage of the Edathala incident, from a shop in the area, has gone viral.
An inspection of the bus of Al Hind School, Pengattussery, Edathala, caught Motor Vehicle department (MVD) personnel by surprise as the safety glass shield of the emergency door was missing. “It has emerged that this mandatory component in the emergency door was missing in six of the nine buses that the school owned. Students might have accidentally opened the latch, and the door swung open even as the bus was moving, resulting in the child [who is yet to attain the age of four] falling off the moving bus on the road,” MVD sources said.
Subsequently, the Edathala police arrested the bus driver, Aneesh Parekattil, 46, of Aluva. The MVD has initiated steps to suspend his licence, while the school management has been found defaulting in ensuring the safety of children.
Father’s complaint
In his complaint to the police, the injured child’s father Yusuf A.M. spoke of his daughter complaining of constant body ache after Thursday’s incident. “She has to be taken to hospital yet again. Such small children must ideally be seated in the front so that the driver and ayah/conductor can keep an eye on them. The worst part is that my daughter, who had urinated in the impact of the fall from the bus, was ferried home in the same bus after covering the entire route length, following which we took her to the hospital. The bus crew ought to have rushed her to hospital and informed me. None from the school management too has bothered to contact us so far, although they reside nearby,” he told The Hindu.
Curiosity of kids
Former Director of Institute of Driver Training and Research, Edappal, P.M. Mohammed Najeeb, who retired from the MVD as Deputy Transport Commissioner, cited the need for organising safety awareness classes for students, including on operating emergency door of buses. “Ideally, only children aged over 12 years must be permitted to sit near the emergency exit, since younger children would have inadequate psycho-motor coordination and might try opening the latch out of sheer curiosity. All safety measures must be complied with while a cross bar across its width might help avert such recurring incidents.”
Moreover, care must be taken to deploy only trained drivers who do not drive under the influence of intoxicants since children tend to emulate drivers of their school buses when they become adults, said Mr. Najeeb, who is a doctorate degree holder in psychological factors behind dangerous driving and speeding.
Awareness video
“The two recent incidents of children falling off moving school buses through their emergency door must be read closely with the one in which the driver of a school van managed to safely park the van which had a dozen children in it, and soon after collapsed and died due to heart attack at Haripad the other day,” said Deepu N.K., a Motor Vehicle Inspector attached to the Perumbavoor Sub RTO Office, who speaks of the relevance of emergency exits in an awareness video brought out by the MVD.
Types of exits
Emergency exits can be roof hatch (one located atop the roof of a vehicle) or the more common ones through window or door on the rear of right side of the body. The installation of pneumatic doors in school buses, which are controlled directly by the driver, while having a lot of advantages, has further necessitated the need for creating awareness among children. This is because the driver might not always be in a position to remotely open the pneumatic door, he added.
Officials of MVD and Kerala Road Safety Authority have, of late, been demanding that at least 30 minutes must be devoted every six months in schools to impart safety training to students.
