Unsafe route to schools

Unsafe route to schools
Deccan Herald

With the traffic department doing little this academic year to regulate traffic in central areas of the City, most schools have gone ahead with their personal arrangements.

Last year’s 16 schools continue under the Safe Route To School scheme (SRTS) this academic year too. With schools in the City reopening between last week of May and first week of June, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Traffic (East), M A Saleem still maintains that 50 schools are targetted under the SRTS scheme. “We are focussing on schools where traffic safety is not adequate,” he says, adding, “till date we have trained 145 van and bus drivers of private schools in safe driving.”

In a City where traffic management is a daily challenge, the department has planned to speak to more institutions to join in SRTS now. But with a week gone by, traffic arrangements to be initiated by the department might take a while to materialise for this academic year.

It’s mayhem on streets during morning and evening hours near centrally located schools, yet the traffic police have not made adequate preparations. Saleem says the initial problems of the first few days will be settled when a mechanism falls in place. “Car pooling will help in a big way,” he says.

Cluney Convent in Malleswaram has a couple of parents and auto drivers managing traffic in front of the school between 8.25 and 8.45 am and 3 to 4 pm. During this time, the road in front of the school is made one-way.

Pradip Kumar Das, Principal, Greenwood High School and previous principal of Baldwin Boys’ High School says he has hired 20 AC buses for his school children. “We strictly follow the 10 rules put forth by the Supreme Court on safety of children travelling by school buses.” This includes a first aid box in the bus, a male and female help, a driver educated about lane discipline and no smoking rules. Pradip feels that hiring huge BMTC buses will not help schools in central Bangalore “because of narrow lanes and bad road conditions.”

Authorities in the Bishop Cotton Boys’ High School which comes under the SRTS scheme say “private vehicles continue to come in and drop children.” Some parents, however, maintain that this has not helped the traffic mayhem in any way. The other schools in the scheme include BMS on Kamaraj Road, St John’s School, Baldwin Girls’ and Frank Anthony Public School.

Safety measures

The SRTS scheme was introduced under the Bangalore Agenda Task Force initiative by the City Traffic Police wherein parking of private vehicles was banned around 200 metres of the school premises during opening and closing hours of the schools. Raised pedestrians crossings, zebra crossings and other safety measures are also part of the scheme to make schools a safe zone.