School Bus Safety

School Bus Safety

Mr. Kang: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A tragedy involving a child

causes everyone to question how to prevent it from happening again.

It is within this government’s control to ensure that standards are in

place to protect children who take the bus to school. To the Minister

of Transportation: will the minister implement legislation that

requires school buses to drop off children at their driveways rather

than putting them at risk by having to cross the secondary highways?

Mr. Ouellette: Mr. Speaker, any time that we have an accident or

a fatality involving a child, it’s very, very heart-wrenching for

everyone involved. We did have a fatality by Millarville recently,

and my heart goes out to that family. I don’t know all of the exact

details about what happened there, but we are investigating within

our highway Traffic Safety Act, and we will do what’s necessary.

The Speaker: The hon. member.

Mr. Kang: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Minister of Education:

how will the minister be working with the school boards to implement

best practices for school bus safety?

The Speaker: The hon. minister.

Mr. Hancock: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last fall, with our cooperation

the Ministry of Transportation did a bus safety report. It

had a number of recommendations with respect to what could be

done with school buses to make sure that they were visible to

drivers. I can say that I have met with superintendents and chairs of

boards across the province, and I’ve always emphasized bus safety

as part of our discussions. In the end it comes down to drivers on

the road being careful and being aware that at certain times of the

day our buses are out with our children and that we should be paying

attention to the fact that buses are out there with our children. We

need to be more careful on our roads.

The Speaker: The hon. member.

Mr. Kang: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the same minister again:

will the minister specifically target funding to school boards to

address school bus safety concerns?

The Speaker: The hon. minister.

Mr. Hancock: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of Transportation

may wish to address this because he has graciously indicated

to boards that his department would provide some of the funding

necessary to outfit buses in accordance with the report that was

prepared. That work is ongoing. In fact, some school boards have

been ahead of the game in that process in terms of making sure that

the reflector tapes and the strobe lights and those sorts of things have

already been installed on their buses. Yes, funding has been

provided through the Ministry of Transportation to accommodate

that.