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Bengal

Transport dept urges principals to ensure legal compliance of school buses, pool-cars

Kolkata: The state Transport department has requested school principals to ensure

that the pool-car and school bus operators comply with traffic rules.

"Principals of the schools should take initiative towards counselling vehicle operators and parents to ensure that the pool-cars and school buses engaged for transportation of school students comply with the provisions of law and ply legally in greater public interest of road safety," said an official of the department.

The statement comes a day after 20 people, including 12 schoolchildren, were injured after the school bus they were travelling in met with an accident near Chitpore Lockgate.

Students, guardians and the bus driver were rushed to R G Kar Medical College and Hospital. Some of them were treated and discharged from the hospital a few hours later. According to a source, the school bus was moving towards Bagbazar on Monday morning with students of Holy Child School.

After crossing the Chitpur Lockgate flyover at the crossing of P K Mukherjee Road and Cossipore Road, the driver lost control over the vehicle and hit an electric post, as a result of which the bus toppled.

Earlier, the department had issued a letter to the school principals mentioning that utility and compulsion with regard to pool cars and school buses are so high that it is sometimes ignored whether a vehicle transporting schoolchildren is in proper condition and mechanically fit, with required clearance from the Motor Vehicles office.

As a result, the vehicle, either due to its handling by inefficient and unauthorised persons, plying with mechanical slag or other deficiency, may lead to accidents on road as has happened earlier in the city, causing damage to the vehicle and injuries to children.

The incidents have alarmed city-dwellers and the state government has taken up the matter with utmost priority.

The letter further pointed out that the pool-car and school bus operators should impress upon the need to have Speed Limiting Device (SLD) fitted in the vehicle, governing its speed to a maximum of 60 km/h. The vehicles should be equipped with GPS monitoring mechanism as well.

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