MUSCAT : Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed bin Salam Al Hashami, Director of Security Relations and Media at the ROP, said the police had completed preparations and implemented traffic and security plans to protect students travelling between residential areas and schools.

He said police presence has been intensified around schools and key roads across the wilayats of Oman to support smoother traffic movement and enhance road safety during the new academic year.

“Our students’ safety is a shared responsibility that starts with the family, takes root in the school, and achieves its complete impact on the road through everyone’s cooperation,” Al Hashami said.

He stressed that parents play an important role by preparing and guiding students, organising their schedules and reinforcing discipline and safe behaviour. Schools, meanwhile, have a responsibility to provide a safe learning environment and promote positive values and behaviours.

Al Hashami highlighted the role of school bus drivers in the student safety chain, urging them to comply with traffic laws, remain focused while driving and ensure students board and leave buses in an orderly manner at safe, designated locations.

Drivers should also check the entire bus after students have disembarked to ensure no child remains inside, both when arriving at school and after returning students to their residential areas.

The ROP also called on other road users to contribute to student safety by following traffic regulations and exercising extra caution near schools and school buses.

Motorists were urged not to overtake school buses while they are stopped to pick up or drop off students and to remain particularly alert when children are crossing roads.

The ROP congratulated students on the start of the new academic year and wished them success, while stressing that cooperation among families, schools, drivers and road users is essential to maintaining safety throughout students’ daily journeys.

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