Video cameras being installed on buses
Companies hope safety feature will deter reckless drivers, capture incidents on board
Niagara drivers who blow past stopped school buses that have their warning lights flashing could be in for a shock this year.
Video cameras that can capture licence plate numbers and images of passing vehicles are being installed on buses and will be ready for the new school year Tuesday.
To start, 10 buses will have exterior and interior cameras. But under a phase-in program, that could reach 100 by Christmas, or about 20 per cent of all school buses working across Niagara.
It’s seen as an important step to keep students safe on the roads.
“They’re everywhere. Those 10 buses (to start) are covering a big geographic area,” said Lori Ziraldo, executive director of Niagara Student Transportation Services.
“And it’s not just large buses. It’s small buses and wheelchair buses, too. We do have motorists that blow by the lights of wheelchair vehicles while we are loading students.”
The law dictates that when a school bus is stopped with its overhead warning lights flashing and its side stop sign extended, traffic in both directions must stop.
After students have cleared the roadway and the driver has turned off the warning lights, traffic can proceed.
The penalty for drivers who don’t stop is a fine ranging from $400 to $2,000 plus six demerit points. For repeat offenders, fines range from $1,000 to $4,000 plus six demerit points and, possibly, jail time.
But catching drivers who ignore the lights and drive right through — jeopardizing the lives of children — can be difficult.
“Our driver — the only adult on the bus — it’s absolutely shocking to them when it happens,” said Ziraldo. “They are more concerned about securing the students and the situation, so they’re not able to get the licence number.
“Having the camera there, I’m going to be able to get the licence plate number for the bus driver to file their report to the Niagara Regional Police.”
As well as exterior cameras, video units will be installed inside the buses. They’ll collect information in case of student injuries, vandalism or bad behaviour on board.
Ziraldo said parents will be informed when their child is riding in a bus with cameras.
“There are redaction capabilities in the software,” she said, so when an incident is investigated the faces of uninvolved students can be blurred out.
Only NSTS staff will view raw video, and if principals are brought in they would see the redacted version.
“There’s only one bus driver for a whole bunch of students on a bus,” said Ziraldo.
“And they have only one set of eyes, that are normally facing forward to drive students to and from school safely.”
The exterior cameras are about the size of a cellphone; the interior ones are baseball-sized.
NSTS — a consortium of District School Board of Niagara and Niagara Catholic District School Board — has worked with the private bus operators to implement the program.
The operators, and their drivers, have been concerned about those safety issues inside and outside the bus for some time.
“The bus companies are making the purchase and doing the installation on their buses,” Ziraldo said, adding it costs about $2,500 per bus.
There is no timeline to equip all the buses, but she said the ones with video “can rotate through the fleet.”
That way, if a problem traffic area is identified that bus could be switched to cover that route.
“This is something that has been raised as a concern,” said Stephanie Sabourin, a spokeswoman for the police service.
She said the NRP worked with the bus companies and NSTS in devising the video program.
“Our role in this is going to be that upon notification from the bus company, our officers will take that video that is provided and investigate and determine if charges are warranted and can be laid.”
Buses with video units will have signs posted inside and facing out in a window near the door. Bus drivers are not authorized to turn off the cameras.
Earlier this year, then-provincial transportation minister Jeff Yurek said changes were in the works to allow bus camera footage alone to be used to prosecute drivers who pass stopped school buses.
Currently, footage is inadmissible as evidence if the bus driver can’t also appear in court to testify.