Date:23/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/23/stories/2008082359130300.htm

Tamil Nadu

It is taken as child’s play

School children being killed in road accidents is causing concern, finds out L. Srikrishna

On August 15, like any other child, when D. Siruchelvam (5), a student of a school in Tirunagar, was waiting to return home after celebrating Independence Day, he was killed, caught under the wheels of a reversing van, the very vehicle meant to take him home.

The police, for their part, registered a case against the driver for rash and negligent act. But the parents are still in a state of shock.

In another fatal case, on Thursday, the news about the death of a school boy, Vivek, in Batlagundu bus stand, Dindigul district, sparked tension. The boy, waiting to board a bus, was crushed to death by, again, a reversing bus. Irate public stoned 40 buses in the bus stand. Only after a mild lathi-charge that the mob was dispersed.

Though parents expect the police to take stringent action against erring drivers/ vehicle owners, in a larger perspective, educational institutions should ensure safety of students, police officers say. Many parents, who cannot drop and pick up their children, prefer school transport to send their wards as it is relatively safe.

But for a few, many autorickshaw drivers indulge in rash driving without caring much for the safety of the children. Those travelling by small vans run a greater risk as the sliding doors are unsafe, police said.

Recently, in one such incident, the door of an Omni van opened all of a sudden on New Natham Road. Children travelling in that van had a miraculous escape, a traffic police officer said.

Similarly, children using two-wheelers is on the rise in the city. This has raised eyebrows of many, as neither the institutions, nor the police have initiated action.Some schools prohibit children coming in two-wheelers. But the clever ones park the vehicles at a distance and walk down to school.

The public want the police to intensify enforcement. Violators should be taken to task and made to realise their mistakes, they feel.

The graph of “death on the roads” in the city looks upwards, a senior police officer said. In 2007, 106 died in road accidents. In 2008 (till August 21), 99 persons, including 8 women, had been killed.