Following the death of two girl children under the wheels of school buses in two different incidents at Selayur near Chennai and at Vellore, the Transport Department has stepped up its drive against non-compliance to safety rules in vehicles of educational institutions.
On Sunday, a battalion of Motor Vehicle Inspectors led by Regional Transport Officers S. Munusamy, Sivagurunathan and Mani, and Deputy Transport Commissioner of Coimbatore K.N. Uthayanun tested the road-worthiness of the vehicles of a couple of educational institutions that were lined up in a parking lot on Avarampalayam Road.
On Friday, the Department had checked 612 vehicles and found violation of rules and non-compliance in respect of 371 vehicles.
Notices were served on such vehicles and a fine of Rs 1.17 lakh was imposed on 112 vehicles, Mr. Uthayanun said and added that the drive will continue.
He added that in three districts-Coimbatore, Tirupur and the Nilgiris- coming under Coimbatore Circle there are 459 educational institutions operating closer to 1,929 vehicles.
In the last three days, the Department has completed checking of 740 vehicles.
Officials have been asked to check the vehicles for their road-worthiness, installation of fire-extinguishers in working condition, first-aid box with medicines, emergency exit, display of school name, contact address and phone number.
From Monday onwards the officials will check for the experience and efficiency of the drivers, their driving licence, and presence of an escort in the vehicle besides driver and cleaner.
Meeting
On Monday evening, the remaining institutions will be asked to line up their vehicles at Nehru Stadium. In the evening there will be a meeting of the heads of educational institutions to be presided by District Collector M. Karunagaran to ensure that there was no slackness or compromise in terms of the road-worthiness of these vehicles and that of the safety of schoolchildren.
Coimbatore Rural Police have asked the police personnel to conduct checks in addition to the Transport Department.
Staff Reporter in Tirupur adds
A joint inspection conducted by transport and police department officials on around 200 school and college vehicles in the district on Sunday has exposed many shortcomings in fitness level and road-worthiness despite the vehicles possessing live fitness certificates.
Official sources told The Hindu that about 30 buses did not either have medicines in the first-aid boxes or were stuffed with medicines that crossed the expiry date.
“We have immediately corrected the deficiencies by asking the operators to replace the old medicines with new stock and fill the first-aid boxes which were found empty on the spot itself,” sources said.
Another worrying aspect noticed during the checks was that many vehicles had its emergency exit doors closed with locks thwarting the very purpose of such facility at the time of an accident.
The bodies of a few vehicles had significant structural damages.
