THUNDER BAY – Passing a school bus with its stop arm extended can bring penalties of up to $2,000, but that’s apparently not enough to discourage some Thunder Bay drivers.
The consortium that manages student transportation for the city’s three school boards is requesting more tools to catch drivers in the act of “blow-bys,” which it says are disturbingly common.
In a statement released on its website, Student Transportation Services of Thunder Bay called on the city to take advantage of new provincial regulations allowing evidence from cameras installed on school bus stop arms to be used more easily in court.
“Injuries and fatalities while riding on school buses are relatively uncommon occurrences, but incidents outside the bus, when students are loading, unloading, or crossing the street, are far more likely to occur and can result in devastating outcomes,” the statement reads.
Changes that went into effect on Sept. 1 allow evidence from stop arm cameras to be introduced without requiring a witness to introduce it. Passing a school bus is also now considered a violation whenever the stop arm is extended, not only when the red lights are flashing.
Those changes will make it significantly easier to earn convictions on the offence, which has a set penalty of $400 but can range to $2,000.
However, it is up to municipalities to decide whether to participate in the program, which they’d be responsible to administer.
The transportation consortium first approached the city about the issue in the fall of 2019, it noted.
However, at a Monday night city council meeting, city manager Norm Gale said significant work remained to be done before staff could bring a recommendation..
“More research has to be done, more practical implications of what it actually means to do this, what are the privacy concerns – these are all questions to which we do not have solid answers now,” he told councillors.
The city solicitor’s office continues to work on the issue, he said.
For its part, the transportation consortium seemed to have no doubt the cameras would be beneficial.
“We hope to progress towards having stop-arm cameras installed on every local school bus as soon as possible,” it said. “We are ready to work with city administration on this crucial student safety issue whenever they are ready to proceed.”
