Cameras on school buses to be used to improve drivers' skills, company says

Video cameras are expected to be added to Stock Transportation school buses sometime next year to improve the skills of bus drivers, the company says.

"This is an opportunity to help really improve our safety performance and allow us to reinforce safe driving behaviours for drivers and fine-tune their skills," said Ron Leimbach, vice-president of safety at Stock Transportation. "And really, it's a value-added tool to the whole company." 

Leimbach said the cameras are always on and have a pre-recording function. If a bus makes a sudden stop, quick acceleration or hard turn, the camera will save a clip capturing the prior eight seconds and the following four seconds.

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Drivers will also have the ability to record manually when, for example, the bus is stopped and has its stop sign out and a vehicle zooms past. The camera will capture the previous eight seconds and following four seconds.

The camera has two lenses: one facing out the front of the bus and the other facing the driver's area.

"The camera gives us a recording of what's going on outside the bus in front of the bus as well as what the driver is doing at the very same time," said Leimbach.

Bus drivers concerned

Leimbach said there is no specific concern about bus driver skills in Nova Scotia. The camera program has been tested by Stock and has allowed the company to improve drivers' skills and "commend drivers when they do something well," he said.

The president of the union representing school bus drivers said he's heard concerns.

Nova Scotia General Employees Union president Jason MacLean said the idea of putting cameras on buses came up during the latest round of bargaining.

"Not everybody is going to support the idea of having Big Brother over your shoulder," said MacLean. "The only reservations we had were the discipline piece.

"Time recording features … may result in the discipline or discharge of employees."