City School bus safety checks to be over by Friday

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

A total of 50 per cent of school vehicles have been inspected by the transport department to ensure the safety of school students after the schools get reopened.

A senior transport department official told Express that of the 486 school vehicles, a total of 201 school vehicles have been inspected and the rest would be completed by Friday.

“During the course of inspection, we found out 156 school vehicles were fit and 45 had to undergo repairs,” the transport official said.

He said the inspection would have been over much earlier had there been no elections. Due to elections, there was a delay but then we will complete the inspection of school vehicles in the city by Friday and across the state by Saturday.

To a query on whether the college buses would also undergo inspections, he said the priority now is schools. “They are small children and at a tender age they won’t be able to take care of themselves. We will also be inspecting the college buses also,” he said.

Interestingly, the transport department has also asked the schools to form a school transportation committee headed by a principal or headmaster along with sub inspector, motor vehicle inspector and parent teacher association (PTA) and conduct meetings to discuss the vehicles are fit or not .

Meanwhile, the transport department is also stressing on the need to have bus conductor along with the driver. “This is mandatory for all the school vehicles. The children are small and getting down and crossing the road is difficult for them. The conductor has to ensure that they get down and cross the road safely,” he added.

Interestingly, the rules have been made stringent after six-year-old Shruthi Sethumadhavan fell through a hole in the floor of her school bus and was killed in July 2012.  Some of the norms include bars across windows and individual seats belts, lowering the seats for children, installing emergency exits and hiring a conductor.