Nukko Lake PAC Wants Safety Concerns Addressed
Prince George, B.C. – The Nukko Lake Parent Advisory Council says more measures must be taken to ensure student safety around buses.
“We need to educate the public about school buses. It’s dark this time of year. Signs that indicate a bus stop is coming up,” says Treasurer Gillian Burnett.
“Our signs for school buses don’t give any direction for what the laws are. Traffic must stop in both directions when the bus lights are flashing.”
She says her PAC has taken safety into its own hands by purchasing safety vests for children and installing a sign that indicates a bus stop is coming up but Burnett is urging more involvement from the school board.
“Over the years we’ve had multiple families come in with some really serious concerns and some near misses about their kids trying to get on a bus or get off a bus.”
Ideally Burnett says parents would like four signs installed which she says “would address the majority of the drivers that are driving in areas with school buses.”
And she’s not criticizing the bus drivers either noting “District 57 actually has an enviable safety record with extraordinary drivers. But is it enough?”
In response to Burnett’s concerns the board has referred the matter to the Education Services Committee.
Comments
Isn’t understanding how school bus signals work a requirement to get your license?
Not stopping for the flashing reds should cost you your license for a very long time. Like forever.
I sympathies with Ms Burnett’s and co-parent’s efforts to protect our students from harm’s way, while attempting to board and depart from the school bus.
This appears to be the same dilemma that Fran Charmichel is dealing with, involving her children catching the bus on Hwy 16 and Silver Road. She was on 97.3 radio last week, in a last dutch effort to get assistance to protect “ALL” the children at this bus stop “on this Hwy” which has a speed of limit of 100 KM.
An incident or the loss of a child is not acceptable at a bus stop is not acceptable.
Thanks
Its too bad that the bus driver cannot simply press a button and have pictures taken of vehicles, license numbers and drivers of the offending vehicles.
It would probably be expensive to have good quality dash cams installed but maybe this is the answer. There should be zero tolerance just as in school and playground zones.
I agree Axeman and include a huge fine, (in the thousands) and a jail sentence too….
Unless the public starts reporting these yahoos to the police by attaining the license number, description of driver, time etc. All are pretty well hooped.
According to the Motor Vehicle Act it says Meeting school bus
149 The driver of a vehicle on a highway, on meeting or overtaking a school bus
(a) that is designated as a school bus,
(b) that is stopped on a highway, and
(c) on or near which a sign or signal is displayed indicating the school bus is receiving or discharging school children, must stop the vehicle before reaching the bus and not proceed until the bus resumes motion or the driver of the bus signals to other drivers that it is safe to proceed.
To make it simple: When the red lights are flashing and the stop sign is out you are not to pass a school bus.
There is a fine for not stopping for a bus. Unless there is a casualty you do NOT loose your license for a very long time. It would be nice if this would happen.
As for dash cams it would cost about $80-100.00 to velcro one to a dash. Some of the buses that are operated by school districts have them. I do not think this bus company is run by the school district here.
Perhaps between the school PAC’s and this school district could work together as there are many areas this happens.
Meant to to put this in.
#149 – Fail to stop for school bus is a $167 fine and 3 points.
So, will anything be done or does a child need to be killed before anything gets done?
Our kids deserve better than this.
Is traffic supposed to stop on both lanes of a highway? That seems highly unsafe. Need some clarification on that. Why can’t a bus driver let the traffic that collects behind them pass, even if they have to pull over a bit down the road from the bus stop? To expect drivers to remain behind a school bus while it offloads passengers along its route is an invitation for aggressive driving.
Yes Jimmy, traffic has to stop both directions. When buses off load, they become an automatic cross walk, so that if the child has to get to the other side of the highway, they can cross safely, because traffic is stopped in both directions, vs, the bus pulling away and leaving them to their own devices to get across – keeping in mind, we can be talking about children as young as 5 years old.
I commute in from Ness Lake, I figured it eats up about 4 minutes of my precious time to obey the school bus rules – 4 friggin minutes, how will I ever get that back. I might have to skip Tim Hortons, I might not have time to check my facebook before starting work, oh, how will I live??
If stopping to let kids cross the street invites aggressive driving, then we are totally hooped as a society. Maybe I’m just selfish, because I don’t see kids on the side of the road, I see the future adults that will be paying for my pension and possibly my care – so the more of them that survive – the better.
And most of the drivers, if it is safe to do so, put on the 4 way flashers, and allow accumulated traffic to pass. I tell you, if someone ever clocked a kid because they passed the bus with the stop sign out, a bullet would be too kind.
Of course, I suppose if I really need that 4 minutes, I could leave earlier – but that makes no sense.
Jimmy Hughes:
The buses run on a tight schedule. If you have a problem with a bus stopping for kids, give your head a shake!
How did you pass your driving test? It is the law. To bad if you got to wait. A kid’s life is more important than where you want to be.
Leave for work etc either earlier or later. Obviously you have not had a family member or a friend’s kid get hit or killed.
So, to ask a valid question invites hate? By the way, in and amongst all of the vitriol and estrogen, I did note the answer to my question. Too many keyboard tuff guys on here.
I would choose to not live along a highway as I have small children who would like to play in the neighbourhood. But that is just a choice I would make for my kids.
Quit taking it personally Jimmy – It is not hate.
A highway is also any road in the province. The law is for all roads even a dead end street, forestry road or a culdesac etc. This also applies to your neighbourhood and even a parking lot.
Sorry Jimmy. My first paragraph – was directed to answer your question, and to provide some rational for why it is the way it is. The balance of my response is for the general group of idiots out there that drive with complete disregard for the safety of others because they woke up in the morning, saw there was a universe, and they were in the center of it. I should have been more clear.
BTW – your kids are probably more at risk in your safe neighborhood because the sight lines are the s**ts in neighborhoods. Cars parked everywhere, and boneheads doing 60 in a 50 km zone, your kid just has to pop out from behind a car to get a ball, and suddenly the world seems so much different.
On a highway, the boneheads have to keep an eye out for moose, deer, dogs, and kids, and because hitting a moose can kill them, there’s a chance they might notice your kid near the side of the road while keeping an eye out for moose.
I was pondering this rural phenomenon the other day, living 40 k out of town seems to develop a need to speed, as if doing so shortens the distance. I guess growing up in the lower mainland, and it taking 60 minutes to go the same distance in stop and go traffic, I don’t mind chilling, doing the 5 km over the limit, and can’t understand why someone has to drive recklessly to save themselves a few minutes. I mean, people knew it was far from town when they moved out there, so if they can’t handle a longer drive, move closer to town.
Is traffic to stop both lanes of the highway ? my question now is do you have a drivers licence J H ? god I sure hope not.
My question had more to do with the low visibility and inability to stop during icy conditions, but feel free to act as if I care about what a person who can’t post two sentences without betraying their education level, has to say. Oh and I’m sure the fairy in the sky has very little to do with it.
Wow, Cricket sure is quick to display his thin skin! And quick to dish the insults!
We are talking about children’s safety here, and a very CLEARLY spelled out section of the motor vehicle act!
Doesn’t matter if you wrote your driver’s exam yesterday or 40 years ago, it’s there, and is pretty obvious!
Well that’s not how it reads . I can read and I sure hope you don’t drive , your driving skills are probably as sharp as your dull brain.I read most of what you post. I feel sorry for you actually.
Jimmy Hughes wrote: My question had more to do with the low visibility and inability to stop during icy conditions,
One should be slowing down and driving to the road conditions.
A school bus will put their 4 way flashers on, then there will be flashing ambers on top of the bus. When the bus is totally stopped the red flashers on top of the bus and a stop sign is out when the door is open to load or unload the passengers.
All this will give ample time to stop if one is actually paying attention to their surroundings and road conditions. Many of the buses also have a flashing strobe on the very top of the bus which helps in foggy and heavy falling snow conditions.
People still go through all of this because they are not paying attention.
Betraying a person’s Education level has nothing to do with asking questions.
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