With Friday's accident involving the Delhi Public School (DPS) van being blamed on reckless driving by a BMTC bus and not the careless of its own driver, parents are now calling for more public sensitivity to the safety of school children on the roads.
Mr. Mansoor Ali Khan, a member of the school’s board of management had claimed on Friday that the BMTC bus had hit the school van, leading to the accident and injuring the students. His claim has struck a chord with parents who feel their children are not safe on the roads owing to the poor traffic conditions.
“As a result of the many awareness programmes, ambulances are now given right of way even during peak traffic hours. But the same sensitivity is not shown to school vans, which is why there are an increasing number of accidents involving them in the city today,” says Ms. Prema, a parent who sends her two children in a van to school every day . The traffic police too feels people on the roads need to make them safe for school children.
But a traffic policeman also blames use of old vehicles by several schools for some of the accidents the city has seen of late. “If we take action against these schools, they will pass on the financial burden of acquiring new buses to the students. So no one wants any action taken. But there is a huge need to bring in changes in the way children are transported to school,” he underlines.