By Mohsen Al-Hazmi and Khidir Al-Khairat

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

QUNFUDAH — Security authorities in the southern coastal city of Qunfudah are investigating the death of a 4-year-old girl who was found dead in her school bus.

The girl was studying in a private kindergarten and died of suffocation in the bus in which she remained locked for quite a long time.

The girl was rushed to hospital but the doctors said she was already dead due to suffocation before reaching the hospital.

Ibrahim Al-Mathami, spokesman for the department of health affairs, said the girl died in the bus and the role of the department was to announce her death.

A number of female educationalists and specialists in school safety said this was not the first incident of its kind. A boy recently died in a school bus in Jazan in a similar manner.

They pointed out that there was no difference in the rules and regulations governing school buses in government and private schools but the difference was in the application of the rules.

Afiya Al-Fifi, of the department of girls education in Al-Faifa, asked for the presence of a woman supervisor in each school bus for girls no matter the number of students on the bus.

She said the supervisors should count the number of children when they board and alight the bus and inform the parents and the school authorities when anyone of them were found missing on a particular day.

“The bus supervisors should also check if any girl has missed the bus and if so must inquire about the reason behind her absence from family members,” she said.

Asthma Al-Salman, an expert in school safety, said the reason behind the death of students inside buses was suffocation because they were left locked inside the bus for a long time without any ventilation.

She said many private schools were contracting unlicensed buses, which is against the rules and regulations for school transportation.

Al-Salman said the supervisors should be the last ones to board and alight the to make sure that no student was left behind.