School buses must do safe drop-offs

Recently, I captured a highly dangerous practice on camera. On close observation, I noticed a nanny or bus conductor holding onto a child right in middle of the road, while a car sped toward them from behind a school bus.

Such incidents occur when school buses drop off children on the wrong side of the main road.

This particular occurrence happened in Al Qusais, in a residential area behind a popular shopping mall.

Since it was around noon, I assume the children were very young, possibly studying in kindergarten.

Children often have to cross the road running, while avoiding oncoming traffic. School buses continue dropping them off in dangerous spots in the area, despite there being a u-turn and roundabout just 50 metres away.

Unless school management and the authorities take note of such situations, it appears to be a disaster in the making.

- The reader is a research director, based in Dubai.

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