The police have directed the authorities of the Outreach School in Wilson Garden that school buses should not be parked in the playground. This comes in consequence of the death of the school student C.M. Manish (06) on December 4 in the school playground when the school bus that was being taken in the reverse ran over him.
The Wilson Garden police said that a notice was issued to the Outreach school instructing them not to park the school buses in the playground. “The school has seven buses and they will now have to be parked in a narrow lane located right outside the front gate.”
The police maintained that there is not much traffic on the narrow lane outside the front gate of the school and that it was an ideal place for parking school buses. According to Wilson Garden police official, the local BBMP councillor has said that the narrow lane would be asphalted soon.
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However, the school authorities in a press statement on Monday explained the reason as to why the school buses were being parked in the playground.
Claiming that the buses were not parked inside the school premises between 2005 and 2010, a statement from the school stated that “After the Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu bus depots were transferred to Shantinagar, the road was being used by these inter-State buses. Many times, these buses are parked on this narrow lane. This leads to frequent traffic jams. Due to all this, traffic police and parents suggested that the school should use part of the playground for parking school vans. Considering the danger posing our schoolchildren on the BTS Road, the school permitted this arrangement.”
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Maintaining that the December 4 incident was an “accident” that occurred despite the fact that “due care and procedure were in place”, the school management also said that there is another gate to the school which is used by parents who drop their children to school. “However, the front road has never been maintained by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). This is a BBMP road and the school has written many times to the authorities concerned to do the needful,” the press statement added.
The school, which was closed since the incident, reopened on Monday.
The school management said in the statement that the principal, teachers and even management members were present at the hospital where Manish was admitted.
To a query the Wilson Garden police official said that the cleaner of the bus that ran over Manish was near the school gate at the time of the accident. “Usually there are a number of buses that pass by the road near the school gate in the afternoon to fill diesel at the petrol station there. The cleaner of this particular school bus was standing near the gate so that he could signal the driver when the road is clear.
The accident took place when the driver was taking the vehicle in the reverse,” he added.