The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : School children's safety `paramount'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 06, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

School children's safety `paramount'

By K. Manikandan

CHENNAI, JULY 5 . The death of five-year-old Keerthi, opposite her house at Perungudi last week, because of a rashly driven van has angered parents and activists, who say the authorities haven't paid enough attention to safety of school children.

Keethi's father, Lakshmi Narayanan, has now vowed to ensure that this does not happen again. "I am ready to travel anywhere and do any kind of voluntary work. I lost my only child. No other parent should undergo the trauma that I am undergoing now... ," he said.

Usha Seshasayee, president of Suraksha, an NGO working for road safety, said such issues were debated only when accidents occurred; they are forgotten soon after. She says that Parents Teachers Associations should insist that schools act to ensure safety of students who depend on private transport.

If a school did not have sufficient vehicles, it should take the services of operators with a good track record. She said the authorities, particularly the Transport department, should ensure that private vans (maxi cabs as they are popularly called) that ferry school children are not used for any other purpose.

A safety audit should be conducted every two months and school management should look after the vans' maintenance. Playing of music in the maxi-cabs should be banned too, she said.

Backing her view that police should cancel licences of drivers involved in accidents, Mythili Sreeram of the Chennai Traffic Task Force said it was time the authorities took stringent action to ensure safety.

"How long will the Government watch precious young lives lost in such accidents," she asked. Ms. Mythili said the safety of the school children rested primarily with the schools. Ms. Seshasayee too regretted that even today some schools did not take the problem seriously.

"A school official told me that their responsibility ended the moment they (students) stepped out of the gates," she said. She said the Government ought to set a time frame to regulate van drivers.

M.K. Subramaniam, secretary of the Automobile Association of Southern India in Chennai, said the Transport Department should make van drivers undergo a sensitisation programme, which the Association would be happy to conduct.

Van drivers tend to drive their vehicles as recklessly as autorickshaw drivers, he said adding that they must be made to understand child psychology. He said that if such accidents were to be prevented, parents, schools and government agencies, especially the Police and Transport departments, ought to work together.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu

News Update

Stories in this Section

Pollution impact on respiratory disorders to come under scrutiny

School children's safety `paramount'

Early morning fire devastates slum colony

Rs. 42.6 lakhs for Tambaram taluk hospital renovation

`Environmental sciences must not be confined to classrooms'

Indo-Norwegian project to develop disease-resistant shrimps

`Ensure full citizenship to disabled children'

Robbery case solved

Human resource excellence award

Jayalalithaa orders reconstruction of temple

Boy's body found

Focus on rainwater harvesting

Chamber head

Around the City

In Chennai Today