Hyderabad: A 23-month-old toddler lost his life at Meerpet due to the negligence of a school van driver. Dongara Manish, alias Pandu, was following his mother who had gone to drop his elder sister at the van pickup point. After the girl boarded the bus, the driver started the vehicle without noticing the child in front it. He ran over the child, killing him on the spot.
The police said that child’s mother had also failed to notice that he had followed her to the van. The bus attendant didn’t see the child either.
Manish is the son of D. Ramesh, the vice principal of a private school and Lalitha, a housewife. His elder sister Moksha is an LKG student at Bharathi Vidyalaya School in Dilsukhnagar.
On Tuesday morning, Lalitha accompanied Moksha to the van. Manish was playing in the house at the time, and Lalitha did not notice him follow her. When the van started, after Moksha had gotten in, the cry of a baby was heard, and the vehicle stopped.
Manish was found to have been crushed under the front right wheel of the van. His skull was crushed and his eye balls had popped out. Immediately after the accident, passersby gathered at the spot. “The driver had parked the vehicle in an open plot instead of parking it on the road. He started the vehicle suddenly which led to the accident,” said an eyewitness.
A case of accidental death was registered. Inspector Rangaswamy said, “The driver was one P. Balaiah. He ran away after the incident. We are searching for him.” He added that Balaiah had a valid driving licence and was eligible to drive a school van. He had been working for the school since 10 years.
Parents want safe drivers
After a school bus crushed a two-year-old child on Tuesday, Hyderabad parents have demanded that schools should recruit only drivers with valid driving licences. Transport authorities say most accidents occur due to the absence of attendants inside buses. Parents also allege that in spite of SC guidelines that there must be an attendant in every vehicle to ensure the safety of children, many schools failed to follow it.
Ashish Naredi, a member of Hyderabad School Parents Association said, “It could be negligence of the driver but the result is death and hence steps must be taken to prevent that. All buses should have an attendant and he and the driver should be cautious while stopping the bus.”
Arvinda Jata, a parent said, “We see such incidents frequently but have never seen any action taken against drivers or managements.”
The Hyderabad traffic police and DEOs have issued guidelines to ensure the safety of children and have directed implementation of SC guidelines.
A committee of education officials and traffic police will inspect schools to check on implementation of the guidelines.
Joint Transport Commissioner J. Pandurang Naik said, “From May 15 to June 30 we checked whether school buses have fitness certificates. There are around 1,500 school buses in Hyderabad of which 1,300 have FCs.”
“We will hold an inquiry about the bus and the driver and find out the cause of the accident,” he added.
