“M’as-tu vu?” bus safety campaign underway
Jan. 29 marks the first day of the annual “M’as-tu vu?” program about bus safety in schools and on the roads. The awareness campaign will run until Feb. 9.
At the Eastern Townships School Board (ETSB), students will hear from bus drivers and see the videos online regarding safety on and around buses.
Bruce Banfill is the assistant director of student transportation at the ETSB. He has been involved with the school board for 12 years. He says that safety on the buses comes down to one thing for kids.
“The biggest role that students play is staying seated on the bus,” he says. “Once we get them seated on the bus, facing forward, the other things take care of themselves.”
Buses are designed with certain things in mind. They don’t have seatbelts and they have high seats. Each compartment of the bus is constructed to ensure that the people sitting on it are safe. Banfill says that the seats are most safe when students are seated and facing forward.
Banfill says that the drivers play a big role in making sure that students are safe on the buses, but that students have to play their part too.
“The bus driver still have to drive the bus and follow all the safety rules,” he says, “but the students still have a big role to play.”
The Eastern Townships covers a very large geographical area compared to some other school boards. Because of this, Banfill says many more students at the ETSB take the bus than other boards. Across the Townships, 88.5 per cent of the students are bussed to school.
Banfill also says that, because of the size of the territory, the buses accumulate a lot of milage. Each year, he says the board’s fleet of buses drives about 2.1 million kilometres. In total, the 77 buses run 65 routes each day.
This means that the chances are pretty high that you’ll come across a bus at some point during your commute. Banfill says that this campaign isn’t just for students; it’s for everyone on the roads.
“The safety campaign is to also remind drivers and motorists that the buses are on the road and to respect the stop signs of the bus,” he says.
He says that the biggest thing to think about is that school buses are large vehicles with big blind spots.
“If you can’t see the driver, they can’t see you,” Banfill says.
He says a problem across the whole country is people ignoring the stop signs on buses and passing them. This puts the kids at risk because those stop signs are supposed to allow them to cross the road safely without interference from cars. Driving past a school bus can be very dangerous.
Banfill emphasizes that school buses never spend much time on main busy roads. For the most part, they’re using those roads just to get to the next neighbourhood to pick up or drop off students. Banfill encourages people on the road to be patient.
“Never be overly concerned about following a school bus,” he says. “Be patient when you’re following a school bus because they’re going to turn off to a sideroad at some point and you can continue on your way.”