Aviral's parents had hired the van just a month ago to take him to playschool.
Highlights
- The child was hit by the reversing vehicle and dragged a distance.
- The child died in hospital, not far from his home.
- The van did not have the regulation yellow strip prominently displayed.
On Tuesday, three-year-old Aviral Rana's mother was on the balcony of their first floor home in Delhi, watching him being dropped off after school. She saw him climb out of the van and within seconds, getting hit by the reversing vehicle and dragged a distance.
The child died in hospital, not far from his home in the Civil Lines area in north Delhi. Patches of blood are still visible on the Maruti van.
His parents had hired the van just a month ago to take him to playschool two km away, unaware of how many rules it was violating every day while travelling with little children.
The private van did not have a permit to ferry schoolchildren and also had no sign saying it is a school bus. There was no attendant or teacher in the van, which is a rule.
The vehicle did not have the regulation yellow strip with details of the driver prominently displayed. It had no fire extinguisher or first aid box, and the driver, who has been arrested, did not have emergency contact details for the children.
The driver, 28-year-old Rahul Kumar had been warned in the past against reckless driving, yet no one stopped him from driving children everyday. After dropping Aviral on the main road, Kumar reversed the van and drove off, not noticing the little child still on the main road, and not bothering to wait till his parents had picked him up. He was caught by local people and thrashed before being handed over to the police.
The rules say if there is no one to receive a child at a designated spot, the driver has to drop him back to school.
"It had only been a month since we started sending him to school in this van. He was dropped a few steps away from our house as usual. But the van reversed on him and then dragged him for some distance", said Aviral's father Hitendra Rana, a technician with Indian railways.
The Delhi government has ordered an inquiry. The playschool has distanced itself from the incident and says it cannot be held responsible if parents hire private, unverified vans.