Parents Alarmed After School Bus Drivers Caught Drunk

Hyderabad: Parents have voiced serious concerns about their children’s safety after police and Road Transport Authority (RTA) officials caught several school-bus drivers operating under the influence of alcohol during surprise checks this week. Officers seized the drivers’ licences and filed drunk-driving cases in court, prompting parents to demand that school management face penalties as well.

D. Rama Koteshwar Rao, a committee member of a school-parents association, said families pay extra for school-run transport in the belief that “the management will safeguard our children’s safety and security,” yet basic monitoring of drivers is being overlooked. “Parents are paying lot of money and placing their trust in school-managed transport services, expecting the school to ensure their children's safety and security. However, the management is failing to monitor the most critical aspect which is student safety,” he said.

Since May, the RTA has been running special inspections of vehicles owned by educational institutions, focusing on road-worthiness certificates and other technical requirements. Officials noted that when a driver fails a breath-analyser test, administered by traffic police, the RTA issues a notice to the school and alerts the District Education Officer (DEO).

Authorities have also held awareness programmes for school administrators and exclusive interaction sessions with bus drivers, including health screenings, to highlight lapses and potential dangers.

Hyderabad DEO R. Rohini told Deccan Chronicle that her office oversees roughly 2,700 schools and has directed every institution operating buses to purchase breath-analysers and test drivers both at the start and end of each shift. She added that schools must also monitor private autorickshaws that ferry students and report any vehicles carrying more passengers than permitted.