Palliser installing more cameras on buses

RED FLASHING LIGHTS A SIGNAL TO STOP

The penalty is $543 plus six demerit points. That’s if nobody is injured or killed.

But Lethbridge-area drivers continue to pass school buses illegally, officials say. And about 50 of them were reported and prosecuted over the last school year.

That’s why Palliser Regional Schools officials are installing more cameras and recording devices on their buses. David Shaw, the division’s transportation supervisor, says driveby incidents recorded with the cameras are reported to police for prosecution.

With cameras now in operation on most buses used on routes in the Lethbridge and Vulcan areas, most of the 74 cases reported by bus drivers over the last school year were pursued.

With schools reopening Tuesday, Shaw is reminding motorists they must stop when red lights are flashing, whether they’re behind the bus or approaching it on a two-lane road from the opposite direction.

“Oncoming drivers may simply not realize they’re required to stop,” he suggests, even though that’s the law in Alberta. Those were the most common offence over the last 12 months.

Palliser will revive its “Think of us on the bus” campaign to remind drivers once again. With 60 bus routes operating every school day, Shaw hopes the reminders — and the cameras — will lead to fewer incidents though the fall and spring terms.

“Even one is too many, because every one has the potential to put students and bus drivers as risk,” he says.

Over the past year, Shaw says buses serving Coaldale schools — all of them equipped with cameras — were the most often passed illegally.

Sunnyside bus drivers reported the second-highest number, he says, with Picture Butte third. Palliser serves 8,300 students attending town and rural schools stretching as far north as Calgary.

Vulcan-area buses will be equipped with full-time cameras this year, Shaw reports.

Even so, students and bus drivers can become the victims of drivers who are distracted, or who drive too fast for the road conditions. In 2015, Shaw says, students were not injured but the driver of a mini-van that collided with the rear of a stopped school bus was killed.

And last year, the driver of a passing truck lost control of the vehicle, hit a bus and sent it rolling into the ditch. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries.