Disruption has been caused in the school community of the Experimental Kindergarten of the University of Patras in Kastritsi, by an incident that happened last Thursday, when a 4-year-old child… was forgotten on the bus.

According to a parent’s complaint made to the “Peloponnisos” newspaper, last Thursday morning, route number 11 operated by the Intercity KTEL Achaia for this school season, after collecting the children from the scheduled pick-up points, took them to school.

However, a 4-year-old kindergarten girl fell asleep in the seat, so when the bus arrived at school and all the children got off, she was left inside without anyone noticing.

According to the complaint, the driver left the school complex and parked the bus, not realizing the presence of the toddler who was sleeping on the seat.

The 4-year-old girl woke up after a while and was horrified to find that she was in an empty bus, which was parked near the school complex. He started banging on the windows and luckily for him, a passing woman saw it, who immediately informed the school and the authorities. At the same time, the driver was also informed, who was near the bus and immediately rushed to open the doors for the child to get out.

Naturally, the head of the Kindergarten was informed about the incident, as well as the parents, who were immediately close to their child. According to pelop.gr, despite the initial shock, the 4-year-old girl attended the school program without problems, with the parents not taking any action until yesterday.

“The child stayed at the school for about half an hour”

The incident was confirmed by the director of Primary Education of Achaia, Nikos Kladis, who stated that a written report has been made by the head of the kindergarten. “The child stayed in the school for about half an hour and fortunately, God saved him that he didn’t stay longer, so that we have other consequences,” said Mr. Kladis.

It should be noted that, according to the project assignment contract, it is stipulated that in the transport of Primary Education students, it is mandatory to have an attendant on the bus to check them when they board and when they leave. In this specific incident, Mr. Kladis stated that there was also an escort. “The competent authorities have been informed about the incident” was the simple statement of the director of the kindergarten, Giulis Papadimitropoulos in “Peloponnisos”.

The Parents and Funerals Association of the Experimental Primary School is also aware of the matter, with the president Haris Tsitsikas stating: “I am aware of the incident, but we do not have anything, as the parents have not filed a complaint.”

The competent service of the Region of Western Greece, which is responsible for the assignment of the transportation work of the students, is also aware, to which parents protested, while the responsible vice-regional governor of Achaia, Andreas Filias, told “P” the following: “I was informed about the matter, it is for an unfortunate incident, which could have been avoided if the attendant’s instructions had been followed. In addition to the dissatisfaction we have already expressed to the contractor, as a regional authority today we will send a document to all transport contractors so that there is great rigor in what the contract provides for safety issues. The Region spends 25 million euros this year on the transport of students in all three regional units and 5,000 routes are operated every day. In fact, our competent services in all 3 units will carry out daily checks in the school rooms, to see if what is stipulated in the contract is being followed”.