Footboarding in Tambaram irks bus crew, commuters

CHENNAI: The police and transport department employees in suburban Tambaram area are finding it difficult to handle the growing menace of footboard travelling by students.

Bus commuters in the suburbs suffer more, as school students defy safety rules while boarding government buses. The worst-affected are the bus conductors who get bullied by rude students.

Two months ago, a Class 10 boy of a government school in East Tambaram who was travelling on footboard, fell on the road and was run over by the same bus. But even a fatal accident like this brings no behavioural change among footboard travellers.

“Every day, students travel dangerously on the footboard and also cling to the window panes. This is common along the Kandigai-Tambaram bus route,” says K Vignesh, a regular commuter from Mappedu.

Sources with the local police admitted that the footboard travelling is a nuisance for the department. “Though we monitor the buses, it’s not feasible to check every bus throughout the day. Schools can monitor the nearby bus stand and play a crucial role in correcting these students,” said the source. “Parents of students travelling on the footboard should be called by the school management to be warned so that the situation can be controlled from their end.”

An MTC bus driver said, “The situation is horrible in bus route areas like Tambaram-Agaramthen, Tambaram-Madurapakkam and Tambaram-Kandigai via Selaiyur. We face mental agony every day due to rude students, from both school and college institutions.”