Parents in Pain Court are sounding the alarm over a couple of close calls involving their daughters when vehicles illegally blew by stopped school buses in the area picking up children.
Jennifer and Paul O'Neill said their oldest daughter has had two close calls crossing the street on Pain Court Line near Crow Line to get on the bus since the beginning of the year. They said their youngest daughter has also had close calls getting off the bus because drivers are not stopping for the flashing lights and mechanical arms with the stop signs.
Jennifer said she has contacted the school bus company and police but it keeps happening. She said it has happened five times since the start of the school year with the most recent incident taking place on Monday.
"My youngest daughter's bus came to a stop with lights flashing, arm out. I was standing by the road getting ready to cross and the car slows down but keeps going. The bus driver lays on the horn and I was waving my arms, but the driver keeps on going. I am just so tired of this happening and something needs to be done," she said. "People need to be reminded that you have to stop and that a child's life is in danger when you don't stop."
Jennifer wants to remind drivers there is a large fine for not stopping for school buses picking up children.
The head of the school bus company, called Chatham-Kent Lambton Administrative School Services (CLASS), said he's saddened to hear about the Pain Court incidents, adding “blow-bys” unfortunately continue to be an ongoing safety concern in school busing both locally, and provincially.
CLASS General Manager Kent Orr said school bus drivers are trained to be aware of traffic and take action to reduce risks to students, but drivers passing stopped school buses is a situation that can happen so quickly that it's a huge risk.
"We are not aware of a spike in reported incidents of this nature, but they do continue to persist throughout our district," said Orr. "We need to keep our kids safe out there."
Orr noted there are tools he can use for problematic areas, including equipping school buses with exterior cameras to help police catch violators, increased awareness for the bus operators and drivers in the area, reviewing bus stops and routes to ensure best practices are employed, and reporting problem areas to police so they can conduct enforcement blitzes.
Chatham-Kent police remind drivers travelling in both directions without a median that they must stop for a stopped school bus with its upper red lights flashing, stop at a safe distance to let children get on or off the bus and cross the road, and not move forward until the red lights have stopped flashing or the bus begins moving. Traffic with a median coming from the opposite direction is not required to stop.
Drivers convicted with passing a stopped school bus with its upper red lights flashing face a $400 to $2,000 fine and six demerit points upon the first offence and a fine of $1,000 to $4,000, six demerit points, and possible jail time of up to six months for each following offence.
Police also said vehicle owners can be charged if their vehicle illegally passes a stopped school bus, even if they weren’t driving.
More information can be found here.
