Northern Lights School Division (NLSD) has turned to technology in an attempt to stop “fly-bys” throughout Bonnyville and the rest of the school division.
For over six years, Matt Richter, director of transportation for NLSD, has been voicing his concerns about the issue of “fly-bys”, where a vehicle ignores a school bus's stop sign and just flies on by.
Now, with the help of two more cameras, Richter has finally found a way to catch those drivers who disobey the law.
“We purchased a new bus this summer and automatically had the dealer install a camera system. We have one camera inside and two outside, with one front facing and one back facing,” said Richter. “Of course the money shot is with the one facing backward because we only have plates on the backs of the vehicles.”
An eight-week “pilot project” with cameras on a single school bus in Bonnyville resulted in 15 vehicles getting caught on camera and resulted in 12 tickets being issued.
“I never dreamed that,” said Richter. “I know they are happening. I have been quoted as saying we are looking at one a day in our school division on our 100 routes. That has never changed. But it is happening more often that we really realized.”
Michelle Gislason, a bus driver in Bonnyville who voiced her frustration in a letter published in the Bonnyville Nouvelle, says that “fly-bys” are a big issue.
“In the two weeks after the story and my letter came out in the Bonnyville Nouvelle you could see that people were thinking and I only had one fly-by,” said Gislason. “Then it dropped off and it didn't matter anymore.”
Gislason had a fly-by on the door side of her bus a few weeks ago, which almost resulted in a child getting hit by a car.
“It was a scary incident for me,” said Gislason. “I was speaking to the child as she was getting off (the bus) and she turned around and paused to look at me and say something. If she hadn't of paused she would have been hit. I would have a hard time living with myself if one of my kids gets hit.”
Ritcher says he has heard of many “close calls” in the area, which is why he has been searching for a solution.
“We have had several near misses over the years. We have had a child dodge a semi trailer,” said Richter. “There are a whole bunch of theories (as to why it happens). Inattentiveness, people talking on cell phones, some of it is running the lights. A lot of the bus drivers will report the traffic coming on them as ‘gunning it', trying to beat the stop sign because they have seen the flashing yellows.”
Richter plans to add the $2,500 camera system to as many buses as his budget will allow. He hopes to equip another bus in Bonnyville with the system as well as send systems to Cold Lake and Lac La Biche, as the problem isn't just in Bonnyville.
“Fly-bys have been an issue forever and not just with us. (It happens) in Alberta, in North America, across the school bus industry, since the dawn of time,” said Richter. “We are sending a system up to Lac La Biche because I have a contractor who has beat our numbers. Unfortunately he has had over 20 (fly-bys) this year. In Cold Lake we have had issues all the time as well.”
Gislason is hoping to get a camera installed on her bus as she feels it will allow her to focus her attention where is needs to be.
“I think it takes some of the onus off the bus drivers because it will be caught on camera whether we get the chance to catch the license plate or not,” said Gislason. “So we can pay more attention to our children and that is the whole point.”
Before the cameras were installed it was up to the bus driver to catch the license plates of vehicles who drove past their stop sign. Now the offending drivers are all captured on a hard drive, which Richter can access.
“I'll take a 15 to 20 second clip of an incident and I'll put it on a memory stick,” said Richter. “The driver has to fill out and sign an official indecent report. Once they have signed the report I will take it and the memory stick to the RCMP.”
The cost of a ticket for ignoring a flashing school bus stop sign is $402 and six demerit points. This cost varies throughout the country with Prince Edward Island handing out $5,000 tickets for the same offence.
Ritcher would love to see Alberta raise the fine in the hopes of deterring more people from breaking this law.
“My personal opinion is that is should be a minimum $2,000 fine for it to make an effect,” said Richter.
