School buses equipped with cameras to ID dangerous drivers
Anglophone South superintendent says drivers who ignore flashing lights put children in danger
Some school buses in Anglophone School District South are being equipped with external cameras to identify drivers who don't wait while children get off and on the bus.
"We are seeing more and more drivers going through the flashing red lights of school buses," district superintendent Zoe Watson told Information Morning Saint John.
The cameras in Anglophone South, which includes Saint John, Sussex and St. Stephen, are part of a pilot program with the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.
The district buses about 18,000 kids to and from school each day on more than 200 buses. The red lights flash when a school bus is stopped, letting drivers know they must stop too, so children can get on and off the bus safely.
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Watson said it's been an issue for the past few years, but some dangerous drivers aren't getting the message.
"School buses are large vehicles," said Watson. "They have the flashing yellow to indicate they're going to stop, the flashing red, some of them have strobe lights on the top, an arm that comes out.
"Our drivers are concerned about the number of vehicles that are going through the red lights."
The district met with police in January to discuss how it could prevent drivers from driving through those red lights. Since then the police started a red-light poster campaign.
Watson said some police detachments in the district have been handing out pamphlets on the issue.
The biggest challenge in the past has been identifying people driving past the stopped buses. It had been up to the bus driver to write down any available information as a driver ignored flashing red lights.
Onus no longer on drivers
School bus drivers were angry when the Progressive Conservative government made this more difficult by getting rid of front licence plates on most vehicles this year.
"With the external cameras, there will now be video footage and we are working with public safety and they will be following up with infractions," said Watson.
"None of us want to hear about an accident involving a child."
With files from Information Morning Moncton