8-year-old boy dies after left in school bus for over 2 hours

A student died of suffocation and exhaustion after he was left alone locked in a school bus in sweltering heat for more than two hours in Ruwi on Thursday. The eight-year-old Sudanese boy was rushed to the hospital but could not be saved, the Royal Oman Police (ROP) said. ROP has urged school bus drivers to ensure that students are not left behind to avoid similar tragedies. Death due to suffocation or lack of oxygen inside a bus or car happens mostly during the summer months. To avoid such tragedies, parents or guardians must make sure that all the passengers — especially toddlers — are out of the vehicle before locking it. Most children are left unattended to in school buses either when they fall asleep or drivers forget to drop them at home. Many citizens and people who tweeted on the tragedy demanded harsher penalties for the school bus driver and officials, to stop a repeat of such incidents. This is not the first case where a child left unattended to in a school bus died in the country. In 2016, a four-year-old Omani boy died after he was left alone in a locked bus for more than five hours in Mabela. In September, 2015, a four-year-old girl, who was allegedly left unattended to in a school bus, died of suffocation in Bidbid province. In 2014, two children died after being locked in kindergarten bus in Darsait. Mwasalat, the Oman National Transport Company, tweeted that the bus did not belong to its fleet.