The Garden Valley School Division (GVSD) is appealing to motorists to improve their driving skills and awareness of stopped school buses loading and unloading students.
It's Bus Safety Week and GVSD has embarked on a public awareness campaign to make sure parents and the motoring public know they have a huge part to play in getting children safely to school and home every day.
Equipped with on-board cameras, GVSD buses record an average of four red light violations every week. That's almost one per day, stressed Kevin Vovchuk, Secretary Treasurer.
"We've done everything we can from a notification standpoint," he said. "The buses are well equipped with flashing red lights. The Division's actually invested extra money and put two stop signs on a vast majority of our buses to highlight to everyone their responsibility to stop when children are going on and off the bus. But no matter how much we try to highlight what their requirements are, we seem to have at least one a day where the motorists either don't know what the rules of the road are, or simply ignore those rules."
Vovchuk added, it isn't an option to stop when a bus is displaying its stop signs and flashing red lights. "It's the rule of the road."
Motorists approaching a stopped bus must stop 5 metres behind or in front of it.
"I think one of the confusions we have is that some people don't seem to understand that if they're meeting a bus (from the front), they have an equal responsibility to stop. It's not just when you're coming from behind the bus," he explained.
"The only exception there is if you are approaching a bus and there is a physical separation, like a boulevard or meridian, between you and the bus. But if it's a two-way street and there isn't that physical separation between the lanes, you must stop for the flashing red lights."
Vovchuk says the violations are happening in all areas of the division - within Winkler, on rural roads and even on the highways.
"Any violation is very concerning, but we've had just in the last two weeks, two instances just outside of Plum Coulee where drivers went past our buses that were stopped on the side of the highway with their lights flashing, at highway speed. Any collision between a pedestrian and a car obviously is going to have catastrophic consequences, but to go past at highway speed is just unthinkable."
He explained, the Division tries to minimize the number of kids that have to cross roads in order to get on and off the bus but noted, it's impossible to avoid it completely.
The law even applies to motorists travelling down 8th Street in front of Winkler Elementary School, GVSD's only school without a proper bus loop. Instead, the road has been widened to allow for a small stretch where buses pull off to the side. Vovchuk says the Division recently recorded four red light violations in one day at that spot. He encourages motorists to pick a different route that takes them around the area.
"At the beginning and end of every day, if cars are trying to get down, they're going to be sitting for quite some time because there are buses unloading one after another after another," he said. "I understand people are busy, but there really is no excuse for driving past a bus with its lights flashing."
Vovchuk added, on-board cameras allow the Division to create reports for every violation. Those reports, along with a video clip, are sent to the appropriate law enforcement agency for the jurisdiction they occurred in and could result in a financial penalty worth over $650 and two driver's license demerits.
"So, if we can't appeal to your citizenship and community spirit, I guess we'll appeal to saving some money financially and hopefully, we can avoid some of these violations because of the fines," he said. "We all work hard for our money, so hopefully, we'll make people think twice before proceeding past the bus."
To review, when children are waiting to get on a bus or getting off the bus, the bus will slow down and pull off to the side of the road, flashing amber lights to alert motorists that it is about to stop, explained Vovchuk. Once it makes that stop, he says flashing red lights are used as kids get on and off the bus. The bus will also display two stop signs with flashing red lights. All drivers must stop when the lights flash red.
The Division encourages all of us to do our part to keep kids safe and Vovchuk said, unfortunately, the year got off to a poor start with regards to bus safety in Manitoba.
"There were two instances in the first week of school, thankfully not in our area. There was one incident in Steinbach and one in the Interlake. On the first, there was a child that was struck by a bus. Thankfully, the child is doing better. In the second incident, a bus was struck by a gravel truck and there were multiple injuries, including the bus driver who was airlifted to the City of Winnipeg for treatment. These incidents can occur anywhere in the province at any time, so it's really up to us to be vigilant and follow the rules of the road. Help us take care of our kids."
He noted, this is a massive responsibility for the bus drivers too.
"Our bus drivers do a spectacular job in sometimes, difficult weather conditions. My hats off to all of them. They truly care. We always say that the bus drivers are the first person from the division that the kids see in the morning and the last people they see when they get off the bus. So, they are an integral part of the staff of our division, and they do a wonderful job. We just need the public's help for them to do their job."
In fact, GVSD is using Bus Safety Week as an opportunity to also remind its bus drivers of the various safety protocols they have to follow as well. A professional development session is being hosted by the Division's Transportation Supervisor, and she will do a walk through with all of the drivers throughout the week.
As well, students will be reminded of safety procedures and proper bus etiquette.
"We're reminding all the kids that they have a part to play in bus safety," added Vovchuk. "Reminding them that they don't walk behind the buses, they walk to the front. And only cross roads when the drivers signal that it's safe to do so."
This work has already been happening over the last few weeks, including bus evacuation drills.
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