In the past two days, police seized 138 vehicles that were ferrying more than 4 children each
Rickety autorickshaws bursting at the seams with schoolgoers packed like sardines is a common sight on city roads every morning. As these vehicles swerve in and out of rush-hour traffic, one can do little besides offering a silent prayer.
The Chennai Traffic Police woke up to the dangers posed by such modes of transport, and over the past two days, seized several autorickshaws used to ferry children to school. This is in the wake of the accident that claimed class II student Sruthi’s life when she slipped through a hole in the floor of her school bus.
The police seized 72 autorickshaws on Thursday and another 66 on Friday for violation of Motor Vehicles Act. “We inspected autorickshaws and school buses,” said V.A. Ravikumar, joint commissioner of police (traffic), south.
Autorickshaws carrying more than three passengers, including school children, were targeted by the police. “It is dangerous to carry more than four children in an autorickshaw. We conducted checks in different parts of the city. We have sent the seized vehicles to the transport department and requested officials to cancel their permit and licence,” said a senior traffic police officer.
The police also inspected the fitness certificate and vehicle documents of school and college buses. “We just checked if the vehicles were in good condition and if the fitness certificate was in order. Regional transport officers will carry out inspection of bigger vehicles,” an officer said.
The team from the Transport Department, including those from the flying squad, has been asked to make thorough checks of school buses and submit a report by Monday noon.
The bus belonging to Zion Matriculation Higher Secondary School which was involved in the accident on Wednesday was at least 11 years old, an official said.
Meanwhile, posters have come up all over Tambaram and other areas in the southern suburbs, expressing anguish over the incident. Various civil organisations have demanded stringent action against those responsible for Sruthi’s death.
Aanai Panneerselvam of Makkal Maamandram said the government’s knee jerk reaction of seizing vehicles and cancelling licences was typical. Accidents involving school vehicles had taken a toll on many children’s lives in the past, they said.
Picture shows it all..Definitely greediness on part of auto drivers.
Even if they drive with 4 kids it will be only loss in profit but not
loss. But these guys want to maximize profit and dont seem to care abt
life. But where r the regulators... it is decades since regulators
played any role with respect to auto. Having said that I have even
seen parents taking their 2-3 children (which makes 4-5 ppl) in a
bike. Lack of awareness and road sense, greed etc. are main reasons.
Problem starts with issual of license...anyone can get it without
writing exam, without even taking the test thru a broker
I wish the society takes an extra care for protecting their children and also my only hope is that these government officials follow this practice throughout their career and not for a day or two after an mishap. I would be happy if they are duty conscious and dedicated to the job what they do which would reduce traffic violations and accidents to great extent.
We have to blame both the parents and Auto walas. Over crowding will
result in accident. I don't want to hear and see next accident like Poor
girl killed by bus. We the people needs to take action, we should not
depend on Police or Govt take actions against this.
Being born and riased up in chennai I always have some unanswered questions, this kind of news sucks, I have always seen school children on roads been taken on cycle rickshaws, motor bikes without any safety measures in place, why do we always take corrective measures rather than preventive measures, why our systems are inefficient and we only act after a sad serious incident occurs, I'm sure some one out there responsible for making policies from Education,Government can put a full stop and implement laws for safe transportaion for children, one other problem is how long these control and monitoring mechanisms can sustain? all these policies gets diluted over period of time and we see this happening again. Please think solutions (who ever responsible) proactively and that's my humble request, after all children make up future india, nothing is more important in a nation other than young peoples lives.
Why blame the auto drivers alone? Aren't the parents responsible for
sending the kids in share-autos because it works out cheaper when 9
other kids share the price? Any why would the parents send in autos if
there were safe alternatives? What is the vision(?!) of this third-rate
government steered by criminal politicians? To squander further tax
payers' money?
Also they should target such public vehicles in transport sectors where accidents are happening silently. I have seen few buses like that in Pondichery to Villupuram route.
Over reaction? Tough to to say. Yes, it is a hazard: the inherently
unstable auto at even decent speeds can maim if not kill the tiny
passengers in it. But what is the alternate solution? Travelling by bus is more dangerous as we could not dangle from
the foot board.
All I see is some more bribery and a forgotten case.
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