SAUDI GAZETTE REPORT

AL-WAJH — A school bus driver in the western coastal city of Al-Wajh in Tabuk province averted a disaster when he discovered that one of the pupils was sleeping inside his bus following his final round dropping off the children at school.

There were a number of cases in the past where children suffocated to death after they were left locked inside the school bus as a result of them sleeping through the journey or those responsible for taking them down forgetting to do so.

Some drivers tend to ignore doing a final check to make sure that no child is left inside before they park and get off the vehicles. This driver discovered a girl sleeping in her seat during a final check of the bus, which he does routinely.

He told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that he felt himself greatly responsible for the safety and well being of the children under his care and therefore he always checked his bus before he parking the vehicle. He urged other drivers to follow suit so that disasters involving school children are not repeated.

In September last year, a schoolboy was found dead in his school bus in Saihat in the Eastern Province after his driver left him behind after failing to see him sleeping in his seat.

Qatif Education Affairs had formed a committee to look into the death of Abdulaziz Mustapha Al-Muslim, a second grader at Ibn Khaldoun Primary School in Saihat. However, the boy’s father dropped the charges against the driver.

Riyadh Al-Ghanim, the boy’s uncle, said Abdulaziz had been left behind in the school bus on another occasion earlier.

“He slept in the bus but had survived that time because it was winter and outside temperature was not very high. This time he was found in the bus unconscious and was taken to hospital. His father asked me to check up on him at the hospital and the doctor informed that the boy died five minutes after arrival,” said Al-Ghanim.

He asked how come the driver did not see a student sleeping in the bus, especially as several such incidents happened in the past.

Qatif Education Affairs released a statement asking the principals of all private and public schools to inform the parents if any student did not show up in the class.

All attendance records should be reflected on Nour Portal and parents should be notified in the quickest ways possible in case their children failed to show up in class.