The morning ride to school could not be more dangerous with rash drivers flouting every rule in their rush to make it before the bell rings. Poor driving skills, coupled with the love for booze are to blame for this and the schools too are at fault for they rarely shell out an attractive salary to get a disciplined driver for the tiny tots. At the end of the day who suffers? Your kid and mine who have to hold on for their lives in the buses.
On September 29, last year a 19-year-old school van driver, Rafil, ferrying around a dozen school students climbed a footpath and rammed into two security guards, killing one of them on the spot, and injuring the other. A few students too suffered minor bruises.
More recently, in August this year, two school vans carrying students met with accidents as their drivers were drunk. The first incident was reported from Venkatala in Yelahanka and the other in Whitefield where a 30-year-old Delhi Public School bus driver was found drunk by the traffic police on August 31.
Read | Guest column: A school bus driver’s job is no easy task
In fact, the police has so far this year booked around 1500 cases against school bus drivers for drunk driving, driving without licence and vehicle insurance, not wearing a uniform and so on. "We will continue these special drives till the drivers fall in line," asserted a senior police officer.
But this may be easier said than done as there are over 20,000 school vehicles including buses, vans, cars, and autos plying on Bengaluru roads every school day, run both by private agencies and the schools themselves.
One should keep in mind the peak hour traffic when the school vans are out on the roads. It is stressful as we have to keep to school timings, school safety protocols, and put up with the tantrums of parents
— Somashekar, A van driver at a private international school
For parents, who entrust their children to the care of the drivers every day, the police action against them has been a shocking eye-opener. “I was shocked to know that school bus drivers drink and drive. Now I regularly speak to the school van driver for a while to see if he is sober or not,” said Ms Rashmi P, a parent of a grade one student.
But the drivers have their own excuses for driving at speeds that may be unsafe for the children. Said one school bus driver, “Some of the children delay the others, and so we have to rush to make up time, sometimes taking short-cuts, or cutting through traffic as otherwise the school authorities question us and even penalise us for not being on time.”
Added another driver, Somashekar of a private international school bus, “It is a mad rush for us every morning and evening on a school working day. In the morning, we need to ferry children from their homes to their schools before the assembly starts and in the evening, we rush to take them back to their waiting parents, who call up the management if we are even five or 10 minutes late, forgetting the peak hour traffic. It is stressful as we have to keep up with the deadlines, our school safety protocols, and put up with the tantrums of parents.”
But whatever be the explanation, at the end of the day it’s the students who continue to suffer. Take the case of two sisters, one in kindergarten and the other in class V, who had to get ready for school one- and- a-half hour early because they were the first to be picked up by the van. Worse, they were the last to be dropped back too. Finally, their father, Manjunath, a techie from SMV Layout in Ullal, decided to give up the van and drop them to school himself. But as this may not be an option for many other parents, the problem of school vans, whether of drunk drivers or overcrowding, remains unresolved and begging for an answer in the interest of the children who depend on them every day.
Few schools including ours pay our school van drivers more than we pay our teachers. We pay our school bus drivers around Rs 3000 – Rs 4000 more than we pay our teachers, as they do a tougher job in bringing all our students on time to our school
- Principal of a public school
Parents should cooperate with drivers, attendees
If the school bus drivers have complaints against the parents, so do some of the schools. “The main issue is with the parents. While some want the school buses to come to their doorsteps, others want the drivers/attendees to call them when they are at the previous pick-up or drop point. Are the school bus drivers supposed to drive or make phonecalls?,” asks Mr Kedarnath, an administrator of a private international school, adding, “As it is our drivers are stressed out trying to keep to the school’s schedule and also safely return the children to the custody of their parents.”
Several schools also claim they find it difficult to hire experienced and responsible drivers as they demand very high salaries. Those who do pay the asked amount, claim they care a great deal about the children’s safety. “We pay our school bus drivers around Rs 4000 more than we do our teachers. Our drivers are trained to be disciplined, responsible and well mannered,” said one school principal.
A private international school claimed it trained its drivers and bus/van attendants every two months on keeping the children in their care safe. “We pay them only nominal salaries, but our drivers are disciplined and are trained not to touch children and to drive safely. The vans have CCTVs, speed governors and are regularly maintained. They are also checked for first-aid kits. Only the female attendants are allowed to touch children, and we have trained them how to do it,” said a headmistress of one school.
Interestingly, she added that the attendants were also trained how to escort small children in playschool, junior grade and senior grade from the road to the school bus. “Students from first grade onwards are not carried but only helped into the vehicle by the attendant. We are also particular that parents should wait at drop points when the van arrives and not on the balcony or at a distance. If the parents are not present at the drop point, we take the children back to our school and ask the parents to come and pick them up,” explained the headmistress adding, “Its a stressful job, but our drivers are doing it well. It is also the duty of parents to inform the attendants if their wards are not attending school on a particular day.”
