School buses get a safe start

Dubai - The city's yellow school buses were out in numbers on Dubai's roads as thousands of students returned to school for a new semester on Sunday.

School transport providers were hard at work over the last two months as buses were installed with new safety features, in line with the regulations issued earlier this year by the Roads and Transports Authority (RTA).

According to the School Transport Manual, school buses need to have window tints requiring transport providers to remove curtains from all school buses.

Some 950 buses run by School Transport Services (STS) were fitted with window tints; CCTV cameras were also installed in over 450 buses as part of the transport provider’s effort to enhance security.

“All the school buses run by our company follow safety procedures and we are happy to have completed the task in time,” said M. L. Augustine, managing director, STS.

The buses also have extra space near the emergency exit, where a seat has been removed to help students evacuate the bus during emergency situations.

Smaller buses having foldable seats in the aisle have also got a facelift. The folding seats have been completely removed giving students space to walk and get-off the bus without disturbing others.

While the CCTV cameras are still optional for school buses, the installation of these has brought a sense of relief to both school authorities and parents.

“Over 450 buses have got the CCTV cameras installed on them. Another 100 buses will be ready by the end of this month,” added Augustine.

Smaller buses have two cameras onboard, while larger buses have three cameras which can even record during the night.

CCTV cameras record the footage on special digital video recorders located inside the bus.

Dubai Modern High School is among one of the schools, which has enhanced its safety procedures for students using the transport services.

The bus attendance system at the school ensures foolproof protection for students as no student is left unattended at the end of a journey.

Bus drivers, support staff and students at the school use identity cards with unique barcodes. A student boarding the bus gets logged in the central monitoring system after scanning the barcode with a special reader onboard the bus.

Soon after, the bus attendant also registers an entry in the logbook to mark the students presence.

Similarly, the system also registers the time when a student reaches the school and gets off the bus. Additionally, the security staff at the school also manually logs the bus timings everyday.

According to Darryl Bloud, principal of DMHS, the new safety features offer an extra level of security.

“I am very happy with all the improvements in the school buses as the safety features are part of a system created to protect children and make sure the students feel safe when travelling,” said Bloud.

School buses in Dubai are required to adhere to the regulations issued by the RTA in the School Transport Manual.

The driver of an STS school bus also has a special panic button in the bus to send an alarm signal to the central control room. On receiving an alarm, alternative arrangements are made to transport the students on another bus. Over 125,000 students travel on school buses every day, as authorities are making every effort to ensure the safety of school children.

An estimated 5,000 drivers and an equal number of attendants work on 2,500 buses belonging to 154 schools.

muaz@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE
• Dubai
• Sharjah
• Abu Dhabi