Parents plead with school board to move 'dangerous' highway bus stop
Daughter's daily trek to catch school bus causing added worry for mom of Ottawa's Butterfly Child
Hundreds of people living in a rural community east of Ottawa have signed a petition urging the local school board to pick up children in front of their homes, rather than force them to wait for a school bus on the narrow shoulder of a busy transport route.
Currently three students living along Montée Lebrun, about halfway between Embrun and Casselman, Ont., must await their school bus at the corner of Route 500, a busy truck route running through both towns.
I don't believe that we're asking for a very big change.- Tina Boileau
One of them is 14-year-old Noemy Pitre, sister of "Butterfly Child" Jonathon Pitre, 16, who's currently in Minneapolis, Minn., where he's undergoing a bone marrow transplant for a rare genetic skin disease. Noemy is living with an Aunt on Montée Lebrun while her mother stays with her brother throughout his treatment and recovery, an ordeal that's expected to last until next August.
"There's a lot of big transport [trucks] that go down this street," said Noemy Pitre, who must make the 15-minute walk from her Aunt's home to Route 500 to wait for the bus that takes her to École secondaire catholique Embrun each day.
Narrow shoulder, 80 km/h speed limit
The posted speed limit on Route 500 is 80 km/h, and the gravel shoulder where she waits for the bus is narrow and unprotected.
"It's really scary because when I'm standing right here on the side of the road there's not that much space between me and the transport [trucks]. I could get hit," Pitre said.
The local school bus zone ends at Montée Lebrun, so buses won't turn down the road because it's outside the boundary set by the Consortium de transport scolaire de l'Est.
Speaking from her son's bedside in Minneapolis, Pitre's mother, Tina Boileau, said she contacted the school in August and was told the zone is set by the bus authority.
"I don't believe that we're asking for a very big change," Boileau said. "I think the bus could actually pick them up at one of the homes [on Montée Lebrun], so to give me peace of mind, of not having to worry every day that my daughter might get hit, or anything worse."
'Nobody walks on Route 500'
Pitre's aunt, Micheline Boileau-Bougon, agreed. "I would never walk on route 500... It is way too fast. It is too dangerous. It is not safe."
Boileau-Bougon's neighbour Carolyn Royer is in a similar predicament, and drives her 13-year-old son Ethan to his grandfather's house further down Route 500, where he can wait for the bus in the relative safety of the driveway. The third child living on Montée Lebrun has made other arrangements to get to school.
Royer said the school board has said in the past buses couldn't pick up students on Route 500 because the road is unsafe, so she can't understand why it's deemed OK now.
400 sign petition
"I was surprised because they said no for the safety of my child, but then you're putting another child's safety at risk putting her there. I think it's ridiculous... They're just not listening."
Royer has started a petition urging the school board to ask the bus authority to make the short detour down Montée Lebrun, and said she's collected 400 signatures so far.
The school board said it's aware of the petition, but said despite Boileau's call to the school, there's been no official request submitted to move the bus stop.
