School bus driver Kim Nuttall approaches the intersection north of Pense, Sask., cautiously these days after a collision there last year cost her two weeks of work.
Nuttall said a car passed through a stop sign and collided with the school bus, injuring both drivers and the two teenaged passengers she had just picked up for school that August morning.
“It’s got me on edge now,” said Nuttall, now recovered from the accident and driving 224 kilometres each weekday on the Pense to Lumsden route.
She encouraged drivers to pay extra attention to buses, especially when loading or unloading passengers.
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“Red-Read-React” is the theme of the Saskatchewan Safety Council’s school bus safety week Sept. 8-13 in Saskatchewan.
Patrick Kurtz, the council’s traffic safety co-ordinator, said the campaign focuses on educating drivers on the importance of driving carefully near school buses.
“If lights are flashing and the stop arm is out, drivers need to be cautious,” he said.
Failure to comply can cost a driver $285, said Kurtz.
In addition to police ticketing offenders at the scene, school bus drivers can also report to police the licence numbers of vehicles violating these stopping rules.
Kurtz said there are consequences to consider in addition to fines.
“If you hit a child, someone will have to live with that for the rest of their lives,” he said.
Nuttall said more drivers need to learn that flashing lights and stop arms mean stop.
As a school bus driver, she is especially wary of hazards, farm equipment and reduced visibility from dust during harvest and seeding.
Inside the bus, she enforces safety rules by keeping her 31 students seated while moving.
“Safety – you have to practise it all the time.”
The seats are specially designed to protect students in the event of an accident, she said.
