Abu Dhabi: A four-year-old child who died in a school bus Thursday may have died because the driver and attendant did not pay enough attention, police said on Saturday.
"The driver said in his statement he thought the attendant would have checked the bus properly," said an official from Shabia police station.
He said the driver is giving his full cooperation in the investigation, but the attendant of the bus has disappeared.
Four-year-old Aathish, a student of KG-1 in Abu Dhabi, died after he was reportedly left behind in the bus.
A report by Abu Dhabi police said the headmistress of the Merryland Kindergarten informed police on April 24 that the bus driver found a boy inside the bus after he had apparently suffocated.
The body was transferred to the Preventive Medicine Department.
The management of Merryland Kindergarten said in a statement to Gulf News the bus driver himself notified the school that he had forgotten a child in his bus and the child appeared ill. He took the child to hospital. The school staff followed him and informed the parents.
The statement said the school does not provide transport.
The school introduces parents to transport companies and any further communication and arrangements are made between the parents and the transport company, including scheduling and payments.
"It has been the school's policy that we take the children from their drivers and attendants at the gate. We will rarely know the situation inside the bus and who is on the bus and who is not."
But Aathish's mourning father differs. "Although the kindergarten has outsourced transportation to a private company, somebody from the school had to ensure that children reached the class from the bus," said Shabin Sreedharan.
"When my wife asked the school whether she should accompany him on the first day, the school replied that she just had to put him on the bus," he said.
Aathish's grandparents have not come to terms with his death.
"My grandson was liked by everyone. But God decided he should have a short life," said Sreedharan, 69, his grandfather from Kerala.
"His grandmother was about to come here to celebrate his fourth birthday on May 2. She is very shocked," said Sreedharan.
