Mishap sparks safety talks
THE funeral of a young boy killed when he put his head out of a bus window was published by The Fiji Times on February 9, 1977.
Mahendra Singh was laid to rest as parent action groups and Transport Department officials put their ideas together on how to make school buses safer.
The tragedy involving the young boy from Vuci Rd, Nausori happened after his head got crushed against a concrete power pole as the bus drove off from outside Suva Grammar School.
His funeral was attended by his classmates from Form 4R, friends, teachers and his headmaster, Sarwan Singh.
Supervise children
Everyone to whom The Fiji Times had spoken to agreed that there was a need for conductors of some sort to supervise the behaviour of children on school buses and for checks that drivers drove safely and carefully.
Suva housewife Barbara Rounds had started an action group in October 1976 to try to make school buses safer.
She called for policemen and women to ride on school buses so they could supervise children and take action against drivers who break the law.
At the time the report was published, she was still awaiting a reply from the Commissioner of Police, John Kelland, on a request made to the Minister for Communications, Works and Tourism, Jonati Mavoa, following special meeting of the Road Safety Council earlier that year.
Mrs Rounds said no matter how much parents and teachers spoke to their children about safety, they would still play up when they were in a group on a bus.
But bus operations had told her they could not afford to supply bus conductors because they were not even breaking-even on school runs.
Mr Singh said putting senior students on the buses as prefects was an idea but they would often have to get off at their stop while many children were still on the bus.
One bus driver was stopped from driving a school bus following action by Mrs Round’s group.
The man had already received one warning following complaints about his driving and was expected to report to the assistant controller of road transport, Graham Dewes.
Mr Dewes said the traffic laws governed the behaviour of both bus drivers and their passengers.
Passengers could be fined up to $50 or jailed for three months for bad behaviour.
Mr Dewes suggested that if parents were really concerned about their children, they should be prepared to pay higher bus fares so conductors could be employed.
He said if some senior students were taken to court and fined for misbehaving in school buses the situation might improve.
“All the driver had to do was stop when he saw a policeman and have the student arrested,” he said.
“The regulations cover everything from singing in the bus and throwing things out of the window, to spitting on the driver, leaning out of windows and damaging the bus seats.”