The number of people driving through school bus red lights dropped on the South Shore this September.
In 2017 there were 29 violations, compared to 19 this year.
Denise Crouse, Transportation Coordinator for the South Shore Regional Centre for Education, says they’ve been working with law enforcement and on several initiatives to bring that number down.
“We also have the additional cameras on our fleet that capture red light violators, we also have installed on some of our buses the additional red lights on the grills,” says Crouse.
School buses across the province had red lights added to their front grills as a part of a pilot project.
Crouse says it’s a little too early to tell if it’s working but they’ll be analyzing the data throughout the school year.
This is the first full school year the new red lights have been implemented.
Crouse says most people who don’t obey the red lights, aren’t passing from behind the bus.
When those drivers are tracked down by local law enforcement, Crouse says they often just didn’t see or were distracted when they drove past.
She adds, there’s little difference between the amount of red light violations at the beginning of the year versus any other month of the school calendar.
Last year there were 212 red light violations in the 2017/18 school year.
This week is the South Shore Regional Centre for Education’s Bus Safety Week.
Story by Brittany Wentzell
Twitter: @BrittWentzell
Email: wentzell.brittany@radioabl.ca
