City of Saskatoon revisits bus driver training program after pedestrians hit

The City of Saskatoon is revisiting its training program for bus drivers after a handful of bus collisions with pedestrians, including two at the same intersection.

Three pedestrians have been hit and injured by Saskatoon Transit buses since December, with two of the injuries occurring at the same intersection near the downtown bus terminal.

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Last week, the city's general manager of transportation Jeff Jorgenson told a city council meeting his department was looking at ways to improve training.

"Transit is going to work with transportation division to see if there's any extreme measures that we can take and any changes that can be made in order to attempt to reduce the chance of any further collisions," said Jorgenson.

Call for safety review

Last month, Ron Prochner called for a full transit safety review after his 88-year-old mother was struck by a bus while crossing the street at the intersection of Third Avenue N. and 23rd Street E. in December 2016.

In March, a 54-year-old woman was hit and injured while crossing the street at the same intersection. The City of Saskatoon said it believes the two incidents at Third and 23rd occurred under different circumstances.

Another woman, 19, was hit by a city bus at the corner of Quebec Avenue and Circle Drive that same month.

Fatality at intersection 10 years ago

Speaking at the city council meeting last week, Jorgenson said the city was aware of a fatality at the Third Avenue N. and 23rd Street E. intersection about 10 years ago.

He said a number of changes to the training program had been implemented since that death.

In particular, the existing training specifically addresses an issue with left-hand turns. A bus drivers' union in Edmonton blamed a left-turn blind spot for at least one pedestrian fatality in that city.

No problem with intersection, says collision analysis

Jorgenson said there were no "fundamental problems" with the Third Avenue N. and 23rd Street E. intersection, which is near the downtown bus mall, based on collision analysis.

"The issue there is that is our highest conflict location in the city because that is the most left turns for transit, and also they're in conflict with a high number of pedestrians crossing Third Avenue," he said during last week's meeting.

Jorgenson said the existing training program specifically addresses that intersection, but the department could "always do better."

"When you get that number of incidences, maybe there is something else that can be done," he said.

A report on the review will be public information when it is ready to go to the Standing Policy Committee on Transportation.