An afternoon collision between a school bus and a small car didn’t result in any injuries on Nov. 19, but highlighted the fact that issues remain at a high-traffic intersection in St. Paul, located at 50th Ave. and 44th St.
A minor collision took place in St. Paul on Wednesday, involving a school bus with children on board, and a car at the intersection.
“The bus was waiting to turn with a green light. There was a pedestrian crossing the road. As (the bus) was waiting, the light changed,” said Cpl. Robert Kuehn of the St. Paul RCMP.
Students sat on the bus and waited while a new bus was brought in to bring them the rest of the way home. What exactly happened after the light changed is still unclear, but it’s a spot of road that Doug Fedoruk, St. Paul Education Regional Division’s director of transportation, has thought about before.
“That intersection is of concern to us on a daily basis,” he said. “Just personally driving through that intersection, especially when you’re going northbound, not everyone is certain of what they need to do.”
Much of the confusion comes from the fact that a service road meets the main road at the intersection, creating multiple entry points. Still, many buses choose to use the intersection when turning left because of the presence of the traffic light. According to Fedoruk, when incidents such as the collision on Nov. 19 take place, there is a standard procedure that is followed.
“The first thing we want to do is make sure the safety of our students and the driver is taken care of,” he said. “Then when we arrive on the scene we usually take a roll call of who is on the bus and make sure they are all accounted for. We make provisions to get another bus there to come pick up the kids, and we notify the parents. We give the parents a brief description of what happened, let them know the students are OK, and that they’ll be a little late arriving home.”
“Fortunately no one was hurt,” Fedoruk said. “As far as we can tell it was a low-speed collision . . . We have a lot of confidence in our drivers.”
Barry Sallstrom, a regional traffic safety consultant, concurs with Fedoruk about the uncertainty that occurs at the corner of 50th Ave. and 44th St.
“That one is a bit of a unique beast,” he said. “There have been ongoing issues with it for years. People are just not sure what to do.”
In the pursuit of clarification, Sallstrom offered up some tips about dealing with the intersection. Those who meet the intersection going northbound into a red light must stop at the stop line, which is located before the service road. They are not allowed to turn right onto 50th Ave. (main street) while the light is red, but they are allowed to turn right onto the service road.
“Say you’re on the service road travelling westbound and you want to turn right and make a quick left (onto main street),” he said. “You have to wait until the light turns green north and south until you can enter.”
Problems sometimes arise because, “You get aggressive drivers who just do what they think is right, and they go through,” Sallstrom said. “Often times an aggressive driver and a person who’s not sure, they end up in a conflict in the intersection.”
Despite the confusion, Sallstrom says that it would take an agreement between the business owners, the general public and the elected officials in order to alter the intersection into a safer, more simple setup.
“Whether that’s the creation of one-ways on the service road, or perhaps blocking off the service road, that would be a decision that would have to be made by all involved,” he said.
