'Parents' cars can be more dangerous than a school bus'

School Transport Services LLC (STS) chief Colonel Mohanlal Augustine outlines a solution to reduce Dubai’s traffic woes.

“Send children through school buses and reduce traffic congestion,” he insisted during a chat with Emirates 24|7.

He added that many parents in Dubai still insist on dropping-off and picking-up their children to and from the school, leaving the area around the school blocked.

“Recently, we had an issue with Dubai American Academy, the RTA (Road Transport and Authority) is making a new road there. In the morning, you will find 600-700 cars outside the school. And parents are ready to wait there for 45 minutes to an hour, just to drop off their kids.

“This is creating a problem for us as well. The buses cannot get in, and have to wait outside.

“If every parent sends their child via school bus, life becomes better for everybody.”

Not only that, he highlighted how it saves fuel, reduces carbon footprint and encourages children to interact with their peers.

In fact, school buses are extremely safe, the STS chief emphasised.

“The number of child loss because of parents’ neglect is much more. Some don’t use car-seats, and don’t insist children buckle up. Many parents even smoke in the car. And there have been incidents where parents forget their children in the car. That is so dangerous.

“With the kind of standards we adhere to in STS, the travel is extremely safe. It shouldn’t matter if they travel 5-10 minutes more in the bus.”

Col Augustine underlined how many parents are reluctant to take school transportation because they believe children’s commute tends to be longer.

He also revealed how some parents use illegal transportation to save cash.

“A lot of illegal mini-vans and taxis transport kids. In some of the schools you’d find the 10-seater vans pack in nearly 20 students and they don’t even have a conductor. This goes unnoticed because they drop the children ahead of school timings. The kids are then left to wait outside for over 30 minutes before the school gates open.”

Col Augustine added these aren’t safe options but parents are willing to overlook this to save Dh100.

“I understand that parents have to shell a lot, especially when they have more than one child. But such savings won’t help them in the long run.”

STS is an ISO-certified company that provides school transportation to over 40 schools across the UAE and has 1,600 buses in its fleet.

The company claims to ensure optimum safety of its child passengers and has installed various security features like round-the-clock surveillance cameras, well-trained drivers and attendants, electronic monitoring of every child, and GPS tracking of every bus.

Urging more parents to use the facility, Col Augustine said, “It isn’t for us to get the money but to make life better for everyone.”

He highlighted that they are often forced to charge more because they are unable to run buses to the full capacity due to the limited number of students availing of the service.

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