School Bus Safety Event Thunder Bay - CJ Goater Acadia Broadcasting
The Thunder Bay Police Traffic Unit is highlighting the frequency of incidents of drivers failing to stop for school buses and the potential risk to school children who ride the school buses.
“The problem we’re seeing here in the city with folks not stopping for school buses and specifically school buses when they’re stopped picking up or letting off children with the red lights flashing, stop arm out. We’re seeing a very common problem of cars sailing right past those buses. It’s creating a very significant safety issue and one that’s of great concern to us.” said Constable Tom Armstrong of the Thunder Bay Police Traffic Unit.
In mid-October the traffic unit held a school bus safety week, ” I think that week there was, I think 40 vehicles were reported passing School buses in the city, which was higher than the month leading up to it, which were, you know, was kind of, opposite of what we hope(d) to see that week.” explained Armstrong
So far this school year there have been over 300 reports or an average of 6 per day of vehicles passing school busses with their lights on at a stop.
School Bus Safety Event Thunder Bay – CJ Goater Acadia Broadcasting
This is an issue that has been monitored by the city since 2016 when the Student Transportation Service of Thunder Bay ran the Just Stop campaign.
“It’s only seemed to of gotten worse since then, last school year we had around 1,000 vehicles reported by local school bus drivers (for passing) the school busses over the course of the year, and we are already up over 300 so far this school year. It’s an issue that continues to plague our community,” said Craig Murphy Consortium manager of Student Transportation Services of Thunder Bay.
“We’ve been putting out messaging, public service announcements, working with Thunder Bay Police, doing media announcements for the last 7 years, to try and raise awareness of the fact that this is a problem, this is a concern a child is going to get killed eventually, and it doesn’t seem to be driving home for a lot of motorists,” added Murphy.
Tom Armstrong of the Thunder Bay Police Traffic Unit and Craig Murphy Consortium manager of Student Transportation Services of Thunder Bay both highlighted that the amount of reported vehicles passing stopped school busses is far lower than the actual number.
If you drive past a stopped school bus with its overhead lights flashing or its stop arm activated the first offence
fines range from $400 to $2,000 and 6 demerit points. For every additional offence fines will range from $1,000 to $4,000 and 6 demerit points as well as possible jail time of up to 6 months.
School Bus Safety Event Thunder Bay – CJ Goater Acadia Broadcasting
