BENGALURU: It is common to spot buses, vans, or autos overcrowded with children during school hours, in the city. These vehicles violate traffic rules, putting children’s safety at risk. However, this is often overlooked by authorities.
The Bangalore City Traffic Police in August registered 79 cases of vehicles carrying more students than permitted. These figures are only for the yellow-coloured officially registered school buses, however many private vans and autos openly flout rules.
The guidelines for school buses or vans specify the 1 to 1.5 ratio rule for children below the age of 12. If a school bus is 45-seater then it can carry only 50 students. However it is seen that not many follow these rules, said police sources.
As per BTP statistics, 42 violations were registered until May 2023. 1,906 individuals were booked for exceeding the number of children in 2022, and 1,750 cases were recorded in 2021. However, many more vehicles are plying, which goes unrecorded, as they are private entities, the police said.
Srinivas Shenoy Y, Deputy Chief Traffic Warden, BTP, said, “Overloading children in vehicles can be dangerous. Such vehicles have no control over the brakes and risk major accidents.” He added that enforcement agencies need to consistently do surprise checks and not just conduct drives.
Parents in the city opined that the rules and directions are only on paper and the schools can only be held responsible for school-authorised vehicles, not private autos or vans. Shakeel M, President, of Voice of Parents, said, “It’s not like these safety hazards are happening in the dark. Traffic police can be present near schools and fine vehicles as and when they arrive.” He added that the authorities need to be proactive about child safety. On the other hand, Shashi Kumar, general secretary, of Karnataka Associated Management of Schools (KAMS) said only private unaided schools and their buses come under the scanner, “The rules should be equally applied to all.”