Workshop to teach traffic rules to Ludhiana school drivers

LUDHIANA: A refresher course to educate the drivers of the school buses about rules and safety norms to be followed while driving was held at Sacred Heart Convent School, BRS Nagar on Monday.
The workshop was organized under Safe School Vahaan' scheme of Punjab and Haryana high court. District transport officer (DTO) Anil Garg was the chief guest for the seminar, while road safety expert Kamaljeet Soi was the main speaker at the event.
"I have always believed that prevention is better than cure. When I was newly appointed as DTO in the city, I used to personally go and challan bus drivers, who were found violating various traffic rules and had to face a lot of resistance from various schools for this, but gradually as school administrators realised that it was for the benefit of their students, they co-operated with me and now we have managed to curb the traffic problems caused by school buses in the city to a greater extent," said DTO.
More than 40 drivers attended the course and appreciated the initiative taken by the DTO to promote safe driving in the city. Prem Chand, president of the drivers association in the school, said, "Soi has taught us a lot through this course. He says that we are like a parent to the children till the time, they are in the bus with us, and it is our moral responsibility to take care of their safety."
"Through this workshop, we aim to prevent accidents altogether. We will have two more refresher courses in the year, where drivers would be educated on what all safety measures to be taken to prevent an accident and in case, an accident occurs, what all measures to be taken in order to manage the situation. We have already held these courses in more than six schools in the city and hope to widen our reach to other schools too," Soi said.
Father John, director of the school, said, "The DTO is sincerely concerned with the well being of students, this is the reason he has been conducting these courses in the city. We as a school, make sure that all traffic rules are duly followed and have also ensured that on all the school buses, contact numbers are given so that if any bus driver is found violating the rules, the school authorities can immediately be contacted and we can look into the matter."