Exterior cameras are coming to all new school buses in Canada, and it is welcome news to the Let’s Remember Adam campaign.
But chair Pierre Ranger says there’s more work to do.
The federal government is mandating perimeter visibility systems, which help drivers detect children around the bus while it is stopped or travelling slowly, be installed on new buses by Nov. 1, 2027.
“I think it’s great,” says Ranger. “It’s a step in the right direction. I think that’s going to help drivers out hugely to know that around their bus is safe. I don’t think that comes anywhere close to solving the real problem.”
He says people not stopping for the school bus is the biggest safety issue.
“Just this morning I read that the City of Thunder Bay has tracked over 700 incidents this school season,” he says. “That’s outrageous. It’s unacceptable.”
Pierre’s brother Adam was struck and killed when a truck failed to stop for his school bus in Feb. 2000 in Mattawa.
Ottawa is also introducing requirements around the voluntary installation of infraction cameras, which could catch vehicles illegally passing a bus.
Ranger says that doesn’t go far enough.
“If the government wants to step up and show that they take child safety as their number one [priority] make that mandatory,” he says. “That should be a normal safety requirement. All buses should have stop arm camera safety and the fines should be stricter. If you run those buses it should be the same as a stunting fine in Ontario.”
Ranger says that’s what Let’s Remember Adam will be pushing for in the future.
The federal government says with this new regulation around perimeter visibility systems, Canada becomes the first country in the world to require new school buses to be fitted with the technology.
