Children and parents in the Karpas village of Yialousa staged a protest on Tuesday against the north’s ruling coalition days after a school bus overturned in the village leading to 28 children and the bus driver hospitalised.

Blame for the accident was laid squarely at the feet of the ruling coalition by children and parents, with ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli having said in the accident’s aftermath that the bus had overturned due to a brake failure.

In response, many were quick to point out the age and poor level of upkeep of buses across the north, with buses built in the 1950s, some with leaking roofs and mechanical malfunctions still being used to take children to and from school.

At the protest, one schoolchild read a joint declaration.

“Our friends were injured and almost lost their lives on their way home from school. This was not an accident. What happened is the result of a disregard for our safety. We will not remain silent. Are our lives as cheap as an apology? Is there no punishment for this negligence? Will justice not be served?

“Enough is enough. Your seats are not more valuable than our lives,” she said.

She added that the bus that crashed was “at least 25 years old”, and that “water dripped through the roof when it rained.

The overturned bus

“There were no safety features such as seatbelts, fire extinguishers, or emergency exits,” she added.

Cyprus Turkish secondary education teachers’ trade union (Ktoeos) leader Selma Eylem stressed that this is “not the first time this has happened”.

“We hope it will be the last. There have been problems with transportation since the 1990s. Our teachers, our union, and our children are fighting to be safe. We will continue this fight so that their voices are heard here,” she said.

A total of 29 people were hospitalised when the bus crashed, with family members having gathered outside northern Nicosia’s Dr Burhan Nalbantoglu hospital in the accident’s aftermath.

They spoke to television channel Kanal Sim, with one mother claiming that while the bus only had a capacity of 20 people, 40 people were on board.

A number of children had reportedly decided not to get on board as they “knew that the brakes of that bus were broken”.

Arikli pointed his finger at ‘education minister’ Nazim Cavusoglu and his ‘ministry’.

He said that at present, school buses in the north are being run as a “profit source” and the system is “open to serious abuse”, with transport providers signing contracts directly with the ‘education ministry’.

“The inspection stations do not have sufficient equipment. Vehicle inspections are done manually. Even the worst vehicles can pass the inspection,” he said, before going on to say that “the vehicles are very old”, and that he would present the matter to the north’s cabinet.