A school bus with its lights flashing means "stop." Signs by the side of the road on school bus routes tell drivers they have to stop when they see those lights on those buses.
But even with all these obvious signals, there are a lot of people who fly by through those red lights and risk hitting kids on their way to school.
Constable Brian Palmater of the Halifax Regional Police says in 2011, 22 tickets have been issued for “failing to stop for a stopped school bus exhibiting flashing red lights.” The fine for a first offence is $399.91. A second gets you $687.41, and a third $1,262.41. Each offence also is worth six demerit points. The police issued 17 tickets in 2007, 18 in 2008, 40 in 2009, 43 in 2010, and 22 in 2011.
The video slideshow above is the main story. Hear a local bus driver tell the story of a driver who tried to go around a bus with flashing lights, narrowly missing a student. A full transcript of the audio slideshow is here.
Because of the high number of “runners” reported recently near Carleton and Pleasant in Dartmouth, Dwight Keeping of Stock Transportation has asked the police if they can put a car in the area.
But the police only nab a small number of the hundreds of people in HRM who blow past the school buses every year. And the offences don't depend on the season---Keeping says the situation is bad all year long.
When the bus drivers see it happen, they make sure their kids are safe, then note the licence number of the car. But if the car driver challenges the case, the bus drivers have to not only identify the car in court, they must ID the driver too. Boudreau has been to court a couple of times (without pay) to testify against drivers, but has yet to see any of them convicted.
Red light runners problem locations:
View Red Light Runners in a larger map
Full transcript
Sharalyn Boudreau: My name is Sharalyn Boudreau, I've been driving for Stock Transportation for five years now, this is my sixth year. I generally drive a school bus in the Brookside area. Love the kids, love doing the job, I enjoy every minute of it.
Oh gosh, generally once a month somebody would run my lights. And generally, they're running... they're coming towards us, and they're trying to beat the yellow lights. I have had a few people run from behind me. One lady actually stopped behind me and decided to go around as kids were about to board the bus. So it was extremely dangerous. But generally people coming towards us will try to beat the lights. It seems to be progressively worse each year.
Eli Moscovitch: Hi, my name's Eli, I'm 12 years old, and I live in Glen Margaret, Nova Scotia. I crossed the road from my stop and I came around the bus, and I was on the gravel on the shoulder of the road. (Disclosure: Eli is reporter Philip Moscovitch's son.)
Sara Lamb: There was a lineup of cars behind the school bus, probably four, maybe five cars, and then I saw another car coming towards us, but it was coming so quickly this car was not going to be able to stop. Then the car began to move onto the shoulder, still driving really quickly.
Eli Moscovitch: And that's when I was the first step of the bus, when the car drove really fast, right by. Missed me by about a foot.
Sara Lamb: And I screamed, and Eli just stepped onto the bus and the car whipped past.
Philip Moscovitch: Was the bus stopped with the flashing red lights on?
Eli Moscovitch: Yep. All the way
Dwight Keeping: My name's Dwight Keeping, I'm safety manager of Stock Transportation’s Halifax Customer Service Centre. Carleton and Pleasant in Dartmouth, that's two separate runners this morning. That's two, that's three, that's four, and, at least five runners. Six red light runners.
We have stoplight runners all over the city, and in the urban areas. Not just in the rural areas as well. We usually get maybe 20 a week. So, I mean, throughout the year we get hundreds, you know. And we do give you plenty of notice. Unless you're absolutely not paying attention, you can't miss our bus and our lights. I mean, there's no way. When you have someone saying I didn't see that school bus, they're really not paying attention. They're not paying attention to what's in front of them. They're doing something else.
Unless there's police right on the spot, very seldom are they going to get pulled in. But at the same time we give them as much information as we can and when we find there are a lot of runners in one particular area, we call it in and try to get a car out that way. It's a beautiful thing when you see someone fly through your stop sign, and luckily the kids are safe and sound, but there's police like two cars behind, and then zip, and they nail them. A lot of drivers love seeing that.
Sharalyn Boudreau: We only stop for a minute. Less than a minute at each stop. And if somebody could just be patient enough for us to turn our lights off and get going again, it would be so much more appreciated and we'd have less of a worry for our children again. It only takes less than a minute, you know. Life is not such a hurry that you have to pass a school bus.
