Crash leads to new rules for school bus drivers

REGINA — Learning lessons from an incident in which a school bus was hit by a train last year, the Saskatchewan government has changed its traffic safety law.

Amendments to the province’s Traffic Safety Act that went into effect at the end of May require school bus drivers to open the side door and driver’s side window when approaching a crossing that lacks an automatic signal device.

The changes grew out of a March 26, 2013 incident in Carlyle, where a CN freight train struck a southbound school bus carrying seven elementary schoolchildren. One child sustained minor injuries.

The subsequent investigation by the federal Transportation Safety Board (TSB) concluded the bus, in accordance with provincial school bus regulations at the time, stopped at the stop sign at the “passive” railway crossing.

“However, the school bus driver did not open the door and did not see or hear the train as it sounded its horn,” the TSB reported in a news release issued Tuesday.

Media reports at the time quoted police as saying the train hit the passengerside front axle of the bus, spinning the vehicle off the train tracks, at which time the slow-moving train stopped.

The investigation determined the driver likely was distracted by road traffic and pedestrians near the crossing.

The school bus’s frame — specifically, the “A-pillar” — and side mirror near the door also obstructed the driver’s view “and concealed the train when the driver looked for a train,” according to the report.

The TSB said the lesson from this was that train horns do not consistently give adequate warning to school buses on which doors and windows are closed when stopped at railway crossings.

Saskatchewan Government Insurance will also promote greater school bus and rail safety to student transportation providers “and will recommend that routine assessment of school bus routes be conducted in order to minimize the risk of railway crossing accidents,” the TSB said.