Sound advice : Traffic police asks institutes to stop overloading vans

Issues advisory for schools to hire drivers with licences, use their own parking lots.

PESHAWAR: The traffic police has issued advisory notices to at least 60 large schools in the district, asking them to arrange for drivers with licences, control smoke emissions from their vehicles, use their own parking lots and avoid overloading their pickups with students.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, DSP Headquarters Asghar Marwat said at least 20 of these schools were served these notices in the city limits.

“Our first concern is the overloading of students onto vehicles – especially pickups,” he said. “We often see around 20 children hanging from a vehicle when it can only accommodate a maximum of 10.”



Marwat warned such things will not be tolerated in future as these actions could have fatal consequences.

“We have observed that school bus drivers do not have licences,” he added. According to Marwat, nearly every school has a parking lot, according to the city map. However, parents have been asked to park on the main road which caused massive gridlocks.

“We have urged the schools to use their allotted parking lots instead,” the police officer said. Marwat pointed out that some school buses were quite old and emitted excessive smoke.

“The administrations of those schools without their own transport facilities will be briefed by our teams on road safety and how to better manage the situation,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th,  2015.