Gurshabad Singh died after escaping a school van and drowning in the pool of a nearby property. Photo \/ Alyse Wright <\/p>\n
Gurshabad\u2019s mother said: \u201cThere are three harnesses he wears … a safety lock which you can\u2019t open … even sometimes I used to struggle with how to open it. And then he had a chest strap and a pinhole lock.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how he managed to escape because usually when they drop the kids, the driver is always there, so I don\u2019t know where he stopped, why he stopped … I don\u2019t know. I have no answers for these questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Education website shows Ritchies Transport took over the West Auckland Specialised School Transport Assistance (SESTA) contracts on April 20, a little over a month before Gurshabad\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
His mother said the driver doing the new shuttle run had introduced himself to her at the start of the second term.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo before there were taxis. Recently the ministry has changed the taxis into the vans, so this was the first term they were taking him in the van. It was only four, five weeks … from second term they started vans.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis driver came and said to us, \u2018I\u2019m his driver, I will be coming this time, dropping this time\u2019, and he asked us to choose his seat … we chose the middle seat for him so he can look outside.\u201d<\/p>\n
She has yet to be contacted by Ritchies as an investigation into his death continues.<\/p>\n
The Herald has approached the bus company for comment.<\/p>\n
Gurshabad\u2019s school told the Herald that schools were \u201cneither consulted nor included in the procurement process\u201d when transport was contracted.<\/p>\n
Children\u2019s Commissioner Dr Claire Achmad said she was \u201cvery saddened\u201d to learn of the death.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that the death of Gurshabad is causing concern for many parents and wh\u0101nau around the country, who are struggling to understand how this occurred and highlighting how important it is to prevent such tragedies.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll children in New Zealand have the right to be safe at all times, in all circumstances \u2013 including on the way to and from school. This includes for all our children who have disabilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI urge all agencies involved to put Gurshabad and his family at the centre of any and all investigations, remembering that all children have the right to be safe at all times, in all circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mother of a 7-year-old autistic non-verbal boy who attends school in Auckland and also uses Ritchies told the Herald she is now \u201cseriously considering\u201d driving her son to school herself.<\/p>\n
She said the transport provider she used before moving to Auckland always had a teacher helper in the van with the kids.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was uncomfortable when I saw there was no teacher … these services are more convenient for us, but they\u2019re not trained, they\u2019re just drivers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have enough to worry about, and now we have to worry whether they\u2019re going to get home safely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two weeks ago, her son managed to slip his seatbelt and get out of his seat. She said the van driver stopped the van, called her to inform her, and she drove to pick him up.<\/p>\n
A special device had now been fitted to her son\u2019s seatbelt to prevent him from unbuckling it.<\/p>\n
The office of Education Minister Erica Stanford was approached for comment and referred the Herald to the Ministry of Education.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, an investigation by police and the coroner is underway into the schoolboy\u2019s death, while WorkSafe and the Ministry of Education continue with inquiries.<\/p>\n
Gurshabad\u2019s final service was held at a Sikh temple today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gurshabad Singh died after escaping a school van and drowning in the pool of a nearby property. Photo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15122,51,32322,1558,9218,6186,1061,634,51029,19688,71,232855,78,5511,6093,4486,111,43,139,69,1118,2847,1523,5198,4410,4062,2552,22498,4758,223,112,4518,3807,4741],"class_list":["post-458437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-8yearold","tag-auckland","tag-backyard","tag-been","tag-before","tag-changed","tag-children","tag-death","tag-drowned","tag-escaped","tag-from","tag-gurshabad","tag-in","tag-just","tag-little","tag-month","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-only","tag-over","tag-pool","tag-provider","tag-school","tag-service","tag-singh","tag-taking","tag-the","tag-transport","tag-weeks","tag-west","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}