HAFAR AL-BATIN — A boy student was saved from a school bus after the driver locked the bus, leaving the child behind on board the bus in Hafar Al-Batin in the Eastern Province. A video of the child screaming for help from passersby to get him out of the bus, which was parked in an empty area, went viral on social media. The intervention of a passerby helped the child to be saved from the possibility of getting harmed or dying as a result of suffocation after being forgotten in the bus. The school bus belongs to the Rafed Transportation Services Company. The student was in good health, according to the company. The student was saved from the bus within one hour after the bus stopped in the parking area following the dropping of students in the morning, the company said in a statement. The company confirmed that the student was taken out of the bus in the presence of the competent authorities. It said that the student's guardian was also present at that time and the child was taken to school at 8:00 in the morning. Rafed vowed to take the necessary legal measures regarding the incident to ensure the safety of male and female students and prevent the recurrence of such incidents. The company underscored its keenness not to be lenient in security and safety procedures inside school buses. Reacting to the incident, many people on social media called for strict action against negligence on the part of the bus driver and the transport company, which adopted its slogan as "the child is a trust." Rafed had previously called on drivers, through its awareness video clip, to inspect the bus well before getting off it, and to ensure that all seats are empty of students. It stressed that the driver shall bear responsibility if any student is forgotten inside the bus. The Ministry of Education had reminded, through its website, that the school transportation service means transporting students and facilitating their arrival from home to school by an appropriate means of transportation that provides safety elements under the supervision and care of an appropriate transportation supervisor. It was pointed out that the transportation company failed to adhere to the ministry's directives concerned with provision of safety elements, as there was no transportation supervisor on that bus. Moreover, the bus was parked in an empty area far from passers-by, and that creates questions among parents of students about the possibility of repeating such incidents in future too.
