The provincial government is proposing new legislation that would make it possible to prosecute drivers who blow by stopped school buses using the vehicle's camera footage alone.
Ontario Transportation Minister Jeff Yurek announced the planned regulatory changes while at Langs Bus Lines in south London on Thursday. The move would allow video evidence from stop-arm cameras on school buses to be used in court without an additional witness.
Currently, school bus drivers have to take the day off of work to testify against motorists who pass buses while children are getting on or off. If the bus driver or any other witnesses are unable to attend court the camera footage becomes inadmissible.
"There is 17,000 driver blow-bys of school buses a day happening in the province and that is an awful lot of people that are getting away with not only endangering our children's lives, but driving recklessly," said Yurek, who is also the MPP for Elgin-Middlesex-London. "We hope that these changes will help to reduce the number of children that are harmed while going to school and coming home on the bus. We know these measures will hold irresponsible drivers accountable."
Yurek stated it is up to individual municipalities to decide whether they want to require school buses in their region to be outfitted with stop-arm cameras, which range in price from $1,000 to $2,000 per bus.
"Usually the school bus operators will up front the money to put the cameras on the buses and the fine money that is collected from municipalities goes back to pay off the investment the school bus operators have put forth," said Yurek. "There is no cost to taxpayers at anytime."
Six Ontario municipalities - Ottawa, Kitchener-Waterloo, Sudbury, Brantford, Peel, and North Bay - have already equipped their school buses with stop-arm cameras as part of a pilot project.
Kevin Langs, vice-president of Langs Bus Lines, applauded the proposed regulation changes.
"The video evidence is clear and will relieve the drivers of having to be sure of all the details," said Langs. "They have so much going on at a bus stop to begin with anyway and it is very difficult for drivers, if a motorist is passing them when a child is crossing, to gather all the details of make, model, licence plate, description of driver."
Langs employees 700 school bus drivers across southwestern Ontario.
The Ford government also plans to introduce new legislation that, if passed, would allow municipalities to increase fines against drivers convicted of passing a stopped school bus.
Fines for passing a stopped school bus currently range from $400 to $2,000, with first time offenders receiving six demerit points.
