Oman accident: Another injured child dies as Nizwa crash toll mounts to 7

Muscat: “He was a lovable and playful child. He was good not only in his studies, but also in extracurricular activities, especially in sports, and we find it hard to admit that he is no more.”
This was said by a medic, family friend and neighbour of Jaden Jaison, the Class II student of Indian School Nizwa, who died on Wednesday at the Nizwa hospital, after being injured in a school bus crash on January 28. With Jaison’s death, the toll in the accident has reached seven now.
Three Class II students, a teacher from the same school and two Omani drivers had lost their lives earlier in the tragic accident.
“Jaden was fighting for his life in the intensive care unit following the accident. His vital conditions were not at all promising. However, we tried our best to save him. Around 2 pm, he left us,” a senior medic of the hospital said.
Following the accident, the relatives of one of the youngsters who died, and parents of pupils at the school, questioned whether the driver, who was reported to be in his 70s, was fit to be in-charge of a bus full of young children.
However, a senior official at the company that employed the elderly driver said the government needed to implement rules to make it clear which nationals should be allowed behind wheel.
Also read: Call for laws to govern school bus drivers in Oman
The two Omani drivers also lost their lives in the accident.
The accident happened when the bus was returning to Nizwa after taking the children to a tour in Bahla.
“If people had concerns about his driving ability, they should have informed the school and the school should have instructed me to replace him. It never happened. So, how can I just remove a national driver from a job,” the official from the transport company had said at the time.
The school children had met with a tragic accident while returning from a picnic in Bahla.
All the four children who have died in the accident are from the south Indian state of Kerala. The teacher, who also lost her life, hailed from the western Indian state of Maharashtra.