February 13, 2002

Six Year old Student dies in Accident in front of Indian Jibroo School

keralamonitor.com

Muscat _ A six year old student of Indian school Jibroo has died in a tragic accident in front of the school involving the vehicle he used to travel. An Arab driver, Kabir, who used to take small children including the victim in his vehicle hit the boy who was running out of the campus after the school period. The boy Hasnain Ali, son of Sujath Hussain Beemani, from Bombay was hit by the taxi driver who was hired by the Indian School Bus contractor to pick up children from the school.

The boy was hit and run over because the Arab taxi driver who was taking reverse gear could not see him. A trailor which came through the road created confusion and the car hit the boy who was without any one to guide him in the busy road. The boy is the youngest of the two children of Sajath Hussain who is working in Muscat Fashions. Jibroo school is a part of Indian School Muscat where students of KG I and KG II are studying.

Even though the driver took the boy to the Khoula hospital, he died. It is said that the school authorities came to know about the accident only when the hospital contacted them. It is about one year back that various Indian schools in Oman were asked to introduce localisation in school buses. All the Indian bus owners who run the business hired local citizens to drive school bus. Even though a hue and cry was made by the Indian community about the negative fall out of giving school bus driving job to locals, the rule was implemented. In this case, the Indian bus owner who was on the Hajj pilgrimage, hired the taxi driver to take children from school.

After the school time, it is total chaos in most of the school compounds and the surrounding roads. Such an accident is not the first in recent times. At least three four accidents are reported from roads in front of the schools. In the Jibroo school where only small children are studying, drivers and school authorities need to be more careful. 'We don't know how it happened. People say they don't know who owns the vehicle,' said his uncle.'We are tikd tgat he was waiting in the park and rushed to the road on seeing his bus,' he added.

According to the normal practice, either the parent or the driver will have to come and pick up their students from the class room or school compound. In this case, the boy who was waiting in the school compound rushed to the road on seeing his bus on the road. The new Omani driver or other school bus drivers who are supposed to pick up students from the classroom or school premises do not obey the norms. In this case, the boy was hit because he was running from the school to catch the bus without any guidance. Sometimes school bus drivers tell the students that if they don't come out on their own, they will be left out. It is high time that the school authorities take it as a serious issue and introduced some system to avoid such accidents, especially because some of the local school bus drivers are known for their rash driving. Indian school Muscat is in a festival mood celebrating carnival. But the school authorities should s not forgot safety of students, especially the little ones, in this festival mood.