[benbsb29]

A read through the Bangalore traffic rants thread will show cases where members including myself have recounted episodes as well as posted pictures where school buses belonging to major schools have violated traffic rules. We also had a member who contacted the school authorities with proof, but was stonewalled. With such attitudes prevailing, there is no real hope for improvement.

[Grand Drive]

Properly trained drivers, speed governors restricting to 40 kmph, parent's time responsibility and the change in the timing of the schools ( 7 AM to 2 PM ) might improve the situation.

[Soumyajit9]

One thing that comes to my mind, may be not very relevant - Can't there be a prescribed guideline that only drivers aged 35 - 50 years old can apply for school bus driver post ?
Incase you have seen the trend, almost all the accidents are caused by high on adrenaline 20-30 years old drivers.

In the OP case, there wan't an assistant / aaya in the bus to take care of the kids. This is a big miss from the school authorities and they have to take the ownership of this lapse. Although an aaya has nothing to do with the driving style of the driver, but atleast she could have said a word or two to the driver.

I partially blame the outsourcing culture and the sprawling of rental business, to these kind of accidents.
You see, if a school owns a bus, the onus of the maintenance of the buses and its drivers lies on the school itself.
With most of the schools hiring / outsourcing school buses to rental companies, it hardly matters to them. Even if we blame the school, it is easy to get away saying that the end-responsibility is of the rental company and not the schhol.

Possibly this is one of the reasons why many parents prefer to drop their kids at school personally instead of a public / school transport.
And yes, reading all these, when my kid goes to school, I would drop him personally. Nobody should rant then, that parents are creating a traffic mess outside schools.

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by Soumyajit9

You see, if a school owns a bus, the onus of the maintenance of the buses and its drivers lies on the school itself.
With most of the schools hiring / outsourcing school buses to rental companies, it hardly matters to them. Even if we blame the school, it is easy to get away saying that the end-responsibility is of the rental company and not the schhol.

Very important point. When I was selecting a school for my daughter, the transport fleet was an important consideration for me. Some folks thought it strange that I was focusing on the transport so much. But for me it was very important. Following were the key things I had in mind

• Fleet owned by the school- Not outsourced. Means all transport employees are part of the school rolls. If this is taken care, a lot of the following will happen naturally.
  
• Proper Yellow color buses with details required as per law written on it (School name, address, phone number, driver details, driver phone number)
  
• Quality of buses. After all I am a bhpian . Although I do not know much about buses, some thing can be easily verified quality of the bus, model, how old it is, tires.
  
• Working emergency door
  
• First aid kit (with actual first aid stuff)
  
• Accompanied by a lady maid
  
• GPS enabled and trackable via App (Was a nice to have-but the school i finalized had it)
  
• Speed governor (Not a big help, you can still drive rashly at 40 kmph)

The school I finalized met all the above criteria. The transport charges were 20-25% more than what other schools in the area charged for the same distance, but that was perfectly ok with me.

Of course, satisfying all these does not mean everything is perfect. But at least can be assured that some basic things are in place.

One other thing I wish there was an option for was some kind of kid friendly seat belts. Unfortunately from what I read, there is no real solution in place for buses. Normal seat belts/lap belts can be dangerous for small kids and of course it is not possible to have child seats in the buses.

[Soumyajit9]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

The school I finalized met all the above criteria.

Very valid criterias selected.
The seat belt is a bit difficult criteria, but it can be partially overlooked if we have sane, trained and most importantly peaceful drivers.
Keeping one's mind cool in a mad traffic is a very tough thing. This is why I had mentioned in one of the criterias to be Senior / Mid-Aged drivers, who have seen the harshness of traffic.

I like your careful selection of school. Expect a PM from me in another 2.5 years down the line.

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by Soumyajit9

Very valid criterias selected.
The seat belt is a bit difficult criteria, but it can be partially overlooked if we have sane, trained and most importantly peaceful drivers.
Keeping one's mind cool in a mad traffic is a very tough thing.

I think it will take a super human to drive sanely and peacefully in Bangalore. There will be some moron or the other who will make you sudden brake, swerve or accelerate hard to save your life

In addition most of these buses need to go through a lot of narrow roads. Which means rough roads, humps and sharp turns.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by wildsdi5530

Not sure how many of you read about the school bus incident in today's paper, but am adding the link.
http://www.mgrtv.com/nine-students-i...s-topples.html
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/...cle6834823.ece
Have witnessed rash driving in Chennai too. In fact most accidents are covered up by the school authorities. Most schools here in south India are owned by powerful politicians who can twist the entire law system. But are they to be blamed?
It is parents who are to blame.
They make the bus so late that the driver has to break rules to reach school on time.
Parents don't do background checks on the driver and owner of the school van.
They don't insist on quality vehicles with safety standards.
They don't prevent overcrowding.

But perhaps the govt. can help by making a few rules to improve education.

1. Exclusive double lane for school buses at drop and pickup timings.
2. Ambulance type sirens for school buses and vans
3. More powerful engines in omni vans and maxximos, etc
4. No liability clause in school bus contract

Vidyashilp buses are driven quite rashly in my personal oopinion. I live near to the school and I have noticed them breaking rules and driving like any call centre driver. The curve where this accident happened is steep but definitely no accident spot for a school bus.

[Soumyajit9]

A very nice and welcome move by Bangalore Transport Department.

When schools cannot afford school buses, these schools should not be given license to operate in first place.
School buses are as important as a Toilet in school.
I wonder how can they operate with leasesd buses from BMTC, which are in general rickety. I would have still unwillingly accepted, if it were a BMTC Volvo bus they hired.

http://www.bangaloremirror.com/banga.../47930321.cms?

The transport department seized ten buses operated by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) on Thursday which were ferrying students of a school in the CBD area for allegedly violating Supreme Court guidelines on school buses.
One of the prominent reasons for the seizure was that the buses were not yellow in colour.

The transport officials also found various lapses on the part of corporation like poor maintenance of buses, lack of baggage racks and first aid, non- installation of CCTV cameras and absence of display of details of school children and parents contact numbers.

[varunanb]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

[*]Fleet owned by the school- Not outsourced. Means all transport employees are part of the school rolls. If this is taken care, a lot of the following will happen naturally.
[*]Proper Yellow color buses with details required as per law written on it (School name, address, phone number, driver details, driver phone number)
[*]Quality of buses. After all I am a bhpian . Although I do not know much about buses, some thing can be easily verified quality of the bus, model, how old it is, tires.
[*]Working emergency door
[*]First aid kit (with actual first aid stuff)
[*]Accompanied by a lady maid
[*]GPS enabled and trackable via App (Was a nice to have-but the school i finalized had it)
[*]Speed governor (Not a big help, you can still drive rashly at 40 kmph)

I agree the above points are minimum guidelines to run a school bus.

But the kids being kids do not like to be restrained and not the right way to grow in my opinion. Invariably they play around and that is natural and is not safe.

Busses however safe even with indivudual seats and child friendly belts are not advisable till they are 8 or 9 years old.

So, when opting for a school, we shifted closer to the desired school and decided ti personally drop till they grow to cycle themselves.

So, her safety is my responsibility and no one can guarentee this better than myself.

[supremeBaleno]

Originally Posted by harryputtar

prefer to drop off and pick up myself, as none of the school buses have seat belts for the kids

When my son started school some years ago, I was also concerned that no school-bus here had seat-belts. But a quick check with friends living abroad indicated that there are no belts on buses there either. There was a discussion on this here too.

Originally Posted by harryputtar

Went to drop-off my daughter to school yesterday on my 2-wheeler

Since you consider even your small car unsafe to have your kids in (due to lack of kiddy seats), ain't it even more unsafe to have a 4-year old on the bike ? Does the kid sit behind you on the bike or stand in front (assuming it is a scooterette) ?

[vb-saan]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

When my son started school some years ago, I was also concerned that no school-bus here had seat-belts. But a quick check with friends living abroad indicated that there are no belts on buses there either. There was a discussion on this here too.

OT: But in most places I have seen abroad, the school buses operate on sedate speeds and not on a racing mission like how we see in some of our cities. Here in Singapore, school buses have lap belts for the seats.

[ajaypjayaraj]

Originally Posted by vb-san

OT: But in most places I have seen abroad, the school buses operate on sedate speeds and not on a racing mission like how we see in some of our cities. Here in Singapore, school buses have lap belts for the seats.

True. Not just school buses but buses in general too. On our roads buses are the biggest racing karts who care least about any other traffic. They are supposed to be driven most sedately. Kerala buses operate like aircrafts on the surface that too mostly in the wrong lane. There is no hope of such things improving unless the law is enforced strictly which is another hopeless scene.

[Kumar R]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

When my son started school some years ago, I was also concerned that no school-bus here had seat-belts. But a quick check with friends living abroad indicated that there are no belts on buses there either.
?

School buses over here in Kolkata are a disaster waiting to happen. I have personal experience of 6 years in them as a schoolboy who was in one for almost two hours every days in the 90s. Back then the concept of special safety for kids / schoolbuses did not exist; I can remember dozens of instances when the drivers indulged in maniacal races, sudden-braked hard enough to make us hit the seat in front with force, kids who injured themselves on sharp corners of seats, metal protrusions, bonnet, door, etc. I myself received stitches for deep gashes on the head twice when thrown airborne inside due to the rear wheels of the bus going over a speedbraker at high speed.

Today, 15-20 years later, the only visible difference is that the buses are painted yellow, display the name of the school and sport childproof grilling on the windows. There is also a trend towards smaller buses. This apart, not much else seems to have changed for the better. I encounter plenty of them on the EM Bypass on my daily office commute and the drivers are utterly reckless and unabashedly intimidating on the road. There is no semblance of any restraint (keeping in mind the fact that all passengers are children) and 'friendly' races between drivers on different routes continues to be common, at the cost of other motorists, pedestrians, and of course, the kids themselves. I commonly see single kids being disembarked at low speeds without bothering to halt the bus completely, very often on one lane removed from the footpath. Inside, I continue to see kids running around loose and apparently unsupervised, especially on the return trips. I have emailed the schools a few times (all reputed ones) and received curt thank-you replies but I doubt anyone takes it seriously. With this state of affairs it is hard to blame parents for insisting on dropping kids off in their own vehicle.

[neutralgrey]

Interesting read regarding seat belts in school buses.

http://www.nea.org/home/19085.htm

Not Indian though.

[i_see]

In my sons school bus, there are lap belts for all seats!
was pleasantly surprised to see that
Also the lady attendant assures that all children are belted up

(this is for kindergarten children. Dont know weather they enforce seat belts for bigger children also)