School buses with new safety features set to make debut

Dubai: The bright yellow school buses hitting Dubai roads from tomorrow will be a new sight for motorists. The buses have undergone a complete makeover to ensure the safety of pupils using school transportation.

The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai had drawn up a School Transport Manual and instructed schools and transportation companies to implement a host of new safety features by September.

Accordingly, the buses are now painted in a bright yellow with "school bus" written in black.

Windows are either tinted at 50 per cent or supplied with blinds.

They are fitted with stop signs to alert other drivers.

The buses also have speed monitors that restrict them to a maximum of 80 kilometres per hour. In addition, buses have four to six emergency exits depending on their size.

Other safety features in the school buses include electronic external mirrors, shock absorbing and fireproof seats, fire extinguishers, electronically operated doors and anti-lock brake systems to mention a few.

As per the guidelines in the School Transport Manual, drivers have undergone special training and have acquired school bus driving licences after medical and criminal background checks were done by concerned authorities.

Colonel Augustine, Managing Director of School Transport Service, which provides transportation for over 28 schools in Dubai said introducing the new features cost them Dh20,000 to 25,000 per bus.

"We have around 700 buses operating in Dubai and all of them have undergone the makeover as instructed by RTA. The operation cost has also increased because we had to reduce the number of seats also from 34 to 22 in small buses and 80 to 50 in the big buses," said Augustine.

The transportation fee in most of the schools in Dubai has seen an increase from anything between 30 to 100 per cent starting this term as a fallout of the new RTA regulations.

Parents however said they are happy to know that their children will be safer in the school buses.

"I think it is a great step by RTA to have these safety features in school buses. When we send them [children] to school, we completely trust the drivers and conductors to ensure that they are safely taken and brought back home," said Nandita Suresh, a mother of a Kindergarten 1 student.

Both Police and RTA inspectors are authorised to fine motorists posing a danger to school buses or pupils by failing to stop when students are getting on the bus or disembarking, especially when the bus is displaying a stop sign.

Main safety features in school buses

• Painted yellow with "school bus" written in black
• A stop arm to alert other motorists when the bus stops
• Electronic indicators n Four or six emergency exits
• Speed monitors that are fixed at 80 kilometres per hour
• Windows tinted at 50 per cent or blinds
• Hammers fitted near windows to break the window glass in an emergency
• Fireproof seats
• No foldable seats
• Specially trained drivers and conductors