Mangalore, May 16: To ensure safety of children and prevent accidents of school vans and auto rickshaws, the Road Transport Authority (RTA) has come out with the new idea of forming a committee in each school in co-ordination with police department and school to keep a watch on traffic violations of drivers.
It was being observed in most accident cases in the past, the reason is overloading children into vehicles. A major accident wherein a school van rolled into the Phalguni River in 2009 caused 11 deaths including that of seven children. To prevent such accidents, the school committee expects drivers not to use mobile phone while driving, have proper vehicle documents, drive slow, among others.
The committee aims to provide maximum safety to children. The committee includes members from parents association, teachers associations and officers from the RTA and police department. They will monitor the ferrying of children in vans, buses and auto rickshaws.
According to motor vehicles act, autorickshaws should not carry more than six children below the age of 12. The proposed committee would keep an eye on vehicles which ferry more children than the prescribed limit.
When contacted regional transport officer (RTO) C.Mallikarjun said” A notification by the state transport commission is expected to be out soon. This will state new guidelines for school transport vehicles. After receiving instructions, we will form a committee”, he said.
Last year auto rickshaws and vans were allowed to carry six children and the new notification may have little changes with respect to numbers. Those ferrying more children will have their registration certificate (RC) or permits cancelled, Mallikarjun said.
However, drivers find it difficult to co-operate with these restrictions.”As per the guidelines, if we carry only a few children per trip, we will incur losses. We can break even only when we take more children driver revealed.
