By Michael Joel-Hansen

Local school divisions respond to bus safety report

Oct 16, 2018 | 5:45 PM

The issue of school bus safety has come onto the national spotlight in a big way.

The CBC’s Fifth Estate recently released a piece which showed that school buses were failing Transport Canada safety tests and that original testing when it came to the effectiveness of seatbelts in bus collisions was flawed.

As a result of this investigation, Transport Canada announced they would be reviewing their previous findings on the issue.

In Prince Albert both school divisions are speaking about the issue. Robert Bratvold, director of education for Saskatchewan Rivers School Division, said his division is prepared to make changes if regulations change.

“When Transport Canada makes changes, we’ll comply and make sure we put those new rules into our buses so that they’re safe as they can be,” he said.

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The public school division owns and operates its own fleet of buses, while the Catholic division has a contract with an outside company to provide the service.

Currently there a number of rules and regulations which are in place that school divisions need to follow, which include yearly inspections.

“There are fairly vigorous, I would say, procedures we have to follow to make sure buses are operated according to those regulations and rules,” Bratvold said.

The director stressed that the people who are entrusted to drive the buses for the division are well equipped to do so.

“We’ve got tremendously professional drivers and that’s another big piece around safety,” Bratvold said.

George Bolduc the chair of the Prince Albert Catholic School Division said he felt the CBC program raised some important issues.

“I think this brings to light something that’s happening, that should definitely be looked at,” he said.

Bolduc said safety has always been a high priority for the division and that the new information requires attention.

“We’re going to speak to our bus provider, we’re going to speak to you know our stakeholders, in the future hear coming up,” he said.

Bolduc said with so many things changing he feels it is important for any organization to be reviewing their policies which they have in place.

“I think it’s incumbent on us to make sure we’re cutting edge,” he said.

MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: mjhskdn