An accident on Thursday morning in Sharjah involving a school bus resulted in three students and two supervisors sustaining minor injuries.
According to the Sharjah Police, the accident was caused when the school bus made a sudden turn, drifted, and collided with the pavement.
The injured were transported to a hospital to be treated. The police have assured the parents of the private school that their children are safe and healthy after the accident.
The authority has stressed the importance of careful driving of school buses, and the need to follow traffic rules.
School buses in the UAE have a strict set of rules and regulations that they must follow, and authorities often conduct thorough investigations.
The Sharjah Private Education Authority (SPEA) last year installed cameras and safety devices in 2,000 buses. The cameras allow parents to monitor their children while they travel back and forth to school. Before the pandemic, GPS devices were installed on buses. They are linked to the control and monitoring room of the SPEA and the operations room of Emirates Transport, to allow tracking.
Earlier this year, Dubai’s RTA revealed that some bus drivers were caught driving without a permit. This was found out during the 6,323 inspections of schools buses conducted between July and December in 2023.
To get the permit, the driver must successfully pass the necessary training and pass a test set by RTA’s Public Transport Agency.
The driver should not be less than 25 years old, shall be of good conduct and shall not have any criminal record.
The driver should submit a traffic points report received from authorities and must submit a medical fitness certificate issued by a medical centre approved by the RTA. The same permit is also required for taxi and limousine drivers.
School transport attendants or bus aides are also required to get a permit to work from RTA. He/she must be of good conduct and behaviour; not less than 25 years old; must be medically fit and should pass the tests approved by RTA.