A total of 29 people are injured, who are being hospitalized with their health condition not considered serious, after the school bus overturned in occupied Gialoussa yesterday afternoon.
The teachers' unions announced a work stoppage for today in 4 schools, two elementary schools and two high schools. In the elementary schools in the morning until 10.30 and in the high schools from 8 to 1.
As reported in the occupied territories, a "police" statement states that the 32-year-old driver and 21 students were transferred to Famagusta hospital, 7 students to Nicosia hospital. Later, one of the injured students was transferred from Famagusta hospital to Nicosia hospital for examinations.
The exact number of passengers is not yet known. They were high school students at Giallos High School who were returning to Rziokarpaso after class.
The injured in the Famagusta hospital were visited by the "prime minister", Unal Ustel, who declared "God has forgiven us, their health is good". He was accompanied by the "ministers of education and health".
“Thank God there are no serious injuries,” Mr. Ustel added to reporters outside the hospital. There are various injuries, he added, but they are under control.
Turkish Cypriot newspapers write that the parents were not given sufficient explanations for the accident, but the bus overturned after the brakes broke. There seems to have been a problem with the brakes in the previous days, according to testimonies from parents, while the "Minister of Transport" Erhan Arikli stated that because the bus had mechanical problems, the army had rejected it.
The Kipris website publishes a post by a student after the accident who writes that “we, the children, trust our lives to these buses every day. But that day, the bus wasn’t taking us home, it almost took us to our grave. As we were walking home from school with our friends, with whom we were laughing and chatting 5 minutes ago, our lives were suddenly turned upside down. We were on a school bus. We just wanted to get home, to our family. But that trip turned into a nightmare.”
The student says they were given assurances that the bus was under control and safe. “We barely escaped with our lives today. The windows were broken, the bodies were covered in blood. My hand got stuck in the glass, it hurt, I can’t stop hearing my friends scream. So I ask you, are you so comfortable because you don’t have children? Are you so silent because this soul is not your soul? We are just children. Children who wanted to get home safe and sound, who dream, who love their friends… What conscience, what authority, what responsibility has the right to make us and our families experience this?”
Source: KYPE
