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The Ontario School Bus Association (OSBA) is a non-profit association providing advocacy, education, and legislative consultation services to the owners of school bus fleets, school boards/transportation consortia and supplier/manufacturer companies across Ontario.  
September 5, 2019 - Issue 18

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Inside this Edition:
  1. OSBA Meets with Ontario Minister of Education Stephen Lecce
  2. 2019 OSBA Driver Excellence Recognition Award
  3. School Buses Equipped with Cameras to ID Dangerous Drivers
  4. New Crossing Signals for Sudbury School Bus Drivers
  5. City of Las Vegas Envisions a ‘Google Maps’ for Student Walkers
  6. First Student’s Safety Dog Bus Tour is Educating Students on School Bus Safety
  7. Spaces Available for Remaining 2019 P.R.I.D.E. Programs
  8. STA Driver Honored for Evacuating Students Before Bus Catches Fire
  9. Back-To-School Photos Are Delaying School Buses
  10. CAA’s September’s Focus Is on School Zone Safety
  11. Order Your OSBA Publications For Back-to-School Now!
  12. Upcoming Events
OSBA Meets with Ontario Minister of Education Stephen Lecce 

On September 4th, 2019, OSBA President Chris Harwood (right), Association Director Michele O’Bright (far right) and Vice President Nick McRae (left) attended an in-person meeting with the Honourable Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education (centre), at the Minister’s office in Toronto.  The meeting provided an excellent opportunity to discuss various student transportation issues and reaffirm OSBA’s goal to continue working with the government to maintain school bus safety and to foster a sustainable, efficient system.

During the meeting, OSBA expressed gratitude regarding a number of positive developments over the past year including the extension of the School Bus Driver Retention Program (DRP), the 4% increase in Grants for Student Needs (GSN) funding, reduced gas taxes and the government’s commitment to the Student Transportation Funding Review (STFR). OSBA encouraged the government to include a detailed examination of operational costs during the STFR and offered to provide assistance in this regard.

OSBA also provided important insights regarding a potential school bus seat belt mandate from Transport Canada, the need to work with the Ministry of Transportation to adopt the 8-lamp amber-red school bus warning system, and the government’s recent regulatory announcements regarding the use of school bus stop arm camera video evidence in court.

OSBA appreciated the very open and candid remarks and questions by Minister Lecce, particularly his acknowledgement and gratitude for the hard work and dedication of all school bus drivers and bus operators across the province.  We invited Minister Lecce to participate in School Bus Safety Week and School Bus Driver Appreciation Day October 21-25, 2019 to see student transportation at its finest!

Member comments and questions regarding the above or any industry issues and government relations matters, are always welcome. Please contact, 416.695.9965 or info@osba.on.ca
2019 OSBA Driver Excellence Recognition Award 

Submission Deadline:  September 30, 2019

In an ongoing effort to recognize the exceptional efforts put forth by thousands of professional school bus drivers each and every day, OSBA will once again acknowledge and appreciate an extraordinary school bus driver in Ontario who has demonstrated exemplary performance and a commitment to excellence, particularly in the areas of driving, customer service and safety.  Please see the links below for the nomination form.

** Again this year, a financial award of $1000 will be paid to the winning driver and $100 to the nominator of the winning driver. ** 

If you would like to nominate someone from your organization or are aware of a very special school bus driver in your area, please submit the following nomination form by Sept. 30, 2019 to info@osba.on.caThe form can be found at the following links:

All nomination forms will be reviewed and one candidate selected by a committee of the OSBA Board of Directors.  The winner will be recognized and announced on the OSBA website, in the OSBA annual magazine “School Bus Ontario”, in the OSBA bi-weekly newsletter, and an announcement made during the 2020 Ontario Transportation Expo (OTE) being held April 19-22, 2020 in Toronto. 

We look forward to hearing from you by September 30th.  If you have any questions, comments, ideas, suggestions - please do not hesitate to contact us, 416.695.9965 or info@osba.on.ca

School Buses Equipped with Cameras to ID Dangerous Drivers

Full Article: CBC News
Article Date: September 3, 2019

 
Some school buses in Anglophone School District South in Saint John (NB) are being equipped with external cameras to identify drivers who don't wait while children get off and on the bus. "We are seeing more and more drivers going through the flashing red lights of school buses," district Superintendent Zoe Watson told Information Morning Saint John. 

The cameras in Anglophone South, which includes Saint John, Sussex and St. Stephen, are part of a pilot program with the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. The district buses about 18,000 kids to and from school each day on more than 200 buses. The red lights flash when a school bus is stopped, letting drivers know they must stop too, so children can get on and off the bus safely.

Watson said it's been an issue for the past few years, but some dangerous drivers aren't getting the message. "School buses are large vehicles," said Watson. "They have the flashing yellow to indicate they're going to stop, the flashing red, some of them have strobe lights on the top, and an arm that comes out. "Our drivers are concerned about the number of vehicles that are going through the red lights."

The district met with police in January to discuss how it could prevent drivers from driving through those red lights. Since then the police started a red-light poster campaign. Watson said some police detachments in the district have been handing out pamphlets on the issue. 

The biggest challenge in the past has been identifying people driving past the stopped buses. It had been up to the bus driver to write down any available information as a driver ignored flashing red lights. 

School bus drivers were angry when the Progressive Conservative government made this more difficult by getting rid of front licence plates on most vehicles this year. "With the external cameras, there will now be video footage and we are working with public safety and they will be following up with infractions," said Watson.  "None of us want to hear about an accident involving a child."
New Crossing Signals for Sudbury School Bus Drivers

Full Article: CBC News
Article Date: September 3, 2019


It's the start of a new school year and children all over Sudbury will be new to getting on the bus for their first week of school. To make crossing the street a little safer, this year in the province there's a new crossing signal. "We put together a new crossing signal for students, so drivers have been trained in this new crossing signal and students from the first time rider session have been trained," said Renee Boucher, the Executive Director at the Sudbury Student Services Consortium. "Students in elementary schools will be receiving training this school year," she added.

The new crossing signal is in addition to the stop sign on the bus, but now drivers will hold out their arm in a stop motion until they know it's safe for children to cross, then drivers will give a thumbs up, says Boucher.

Children will be learning the new crossing signal in September, October and November this school year.  And for some young children riding the bus, this will be their first time, which can get confusing.

Boucher says it's important that parents remember to make sure their little ones have their name tags, especially for the first bus ride.  "Just so that our drivers know exactly where to drop off the child on the first day of school. So for our little one's schools all look the same and it's normal for them to just leave the bus with the first group of children that are exiting and it may not be their school," she said.  The name tags help ensure that children in Junior and Senior Kindergarten are getting off the bus at the right school. 
City of Las Vegas Envisions a ‘Google Maps’ for Student Walkers

Full Article: School Transportation News
Article Date: September 3, 2019


The City of Las Vegas (NV) has released step one of its goal to create a walking app for students and parents, on the first day of the 2019-2020 school year.  Gena Kendall, a city traffic engineer for the Public Works Transportation Engineering Division of the City of Las Vegas, discussed the goal of the program with School Transportation News. The first step of the launch is a website that presents the location of schools and the safest walking/bicycling routes around that school.

The website includes bike lanes, 25 and 15 mph zones, as well as crossings and stoplight locations. However, Kendall said the website will eventually become more interactive. For instance, parents would be able to type in their home address and the name of the school, and the program would create a line that shows the safest walking route to school. Such challenges as a closed sidewalk and construction hazards are planned to be included. “We have lots of plans. It is very rough right now. We are really excited about it, but it’s not complete,” Kendall said. “I like to think of it as a ‘Waze’ or ‘Google maps’ for walkers.”

Kendall said the program’s goal would be creating an app that would be linked to the Clark County School District website, where parents could log in and all their information would be private. The City of Las Vegas currently works in partnership with the school district in developing a safe atmosphere for walking or biking to school through the Nevada Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School Program.

Clark County School District (CCSD) (NV), the fifth-largest school district in the nation, adopted the Safe Routes to School Program in 2007, Safe Routes for School Coordinator Traci Taasdahl said. Currently, CCSD has 196 schools that are K-8 in its program. The district has 362 schools total, 86 of which are within the City of Las Vegas jurisdiction. The other jurisdictions are unincorporated Clark County, the City of Henderson and the City of North Las Vegas. In all, 125,000 students who attend the districts 362 schools are bus eligible (living 2 miles or more from the school). The remaining 200,000 students either walk or bike to school, take transit, or have their parents or someone else transport them.

The school district functions as more of an advocate for the City of Las Vegas and the other jurisdictions in terms of safety. Taasdahl said she encourages the parents to go to the local jurisdiction websites to look at the suggested walking routes.

Kendall said using the information from Clark County School District on whether a student is bus eligible or not, the app would provide a safe route to walk to either the school bus stop or the school itself. The app would also include information on where the crossing guards are located and where the crosswalk is. “And using that information that they have, we want to give all parents a map. We want them to be able to pull it up on a map and it will show them where they pick up the bus. It would show you how to walk to the bus stop, or how you need to get to school,” Kendall said. “And if the bus stop moved for some reason, it would say ‘hey, the bus is now going to pick up [students] on the other side,’ or something to that effect.”

Currently, Kendall said the city is in the process of mapping all of its public work assets, including all public owned sidewalks, crosswalks and signs. And while the city is mapping this, officials are also addressing what infrastructure is outstanding. As they are going through the streets, they list what sidewalks need repairs, or what rural areas need sidewalks if they have not had them before.

“We have all of this technology. We are mapping all of our construction work, [plus] the construction projects that we have coming up or are currently in progress,” Kendall said. “We map this stuff, so why not provide it to the public, and make it something useful for them too. It’s all there, all the pieces are there. Now we just have to get it and put it together.”

Kendall added that for the future, the app would be updated if a sidewalk was under construction and provide students with an alternative walking route to school. The routing will also consider how much traffic is in that particular area and the speed limits in that area. It will help the city officials decide what they are going to install to make that route safer, whether that be a head-activated flasher or a streetlamp.

“We just want to give the parents as much information as we can and notify them,” Kendall said. “We have so much construction going on in our area and it’s a pain for people. So, if I can give them a heads up, we are going to close this crosswalk and we are detouring people here and give them that extra 15 minutes to walk to school. That might be a good thing.”

Kendall said the app is envisioned to be based on an alert system. As soon as the city knows about it and it needs to be fixed, an alert to the app would be a click away. It would be giving parents a warning. Within the next business day, a detour would be routed for an alternative walking route to school. Kendall noted that the program is all in-house, so it will be more time-consuming. But Kendall said it is a priority and it is something that will be completed.

Kendall said one fear is that the City of Las Vegas is potentially liable if something happens. She stressed that this is only a suggested route and not the only way to walk. The intent of this program is to give the parents as much information as possible and notify them of all the construction and hazardous walking areas that develop.
First Student’s Safety Dog Bus Tour is Educating Students on School Bus Safety

Full Article: School Transportation News
Article Date: August 22, 2019

 
First Student is shining a spotlight on school bus safety this back-to-school season with its 5th Annual Safety Dog Bus Tour. The Safety Dog Bus Tour kicks off on August 29 in Racine (WI) when it begins traveling to 12 locations across North America with its mission to reinforce safe school bus behavior.

“Student safety is at the heart of everything we do,” said First Student Chief Operating Officer and Interim President Paul Osland. “The Safety Dog Bus Tour teaches students appropriate school bus behavior at the start of the school year. We make it fun, interactive, and most importantly, memorable.”

During Safety Dog Bus Tour events, students can see first-hand how a First Student bus is designed for safety inside and out. Students can “Walk the Yellow Carpet” and pose for a photo with Safety Dog, First Student’s safety mascot, or sign a safety pledge and leave with a “doggie bag” full of Safety Dog goodies.

The Tour also aims to remind motorists that they, too, play an essential role in keeping bus riders safe by obeying stop arm safety laws. A recent survey suggests there could be more than 17 million illegal stop-arm passes during a school year.

Since 2015, there have been 33 stops on the Safety Dog Bus Tour. In total, more than 29,000 guests have visited a stop, and over 11,000 students have signed a safety pledge.

Tour dates, times, locations, safety tips, and downloadable activities for students and parents are posted at safetydogbustour.com. Safety tips and tour updates are also at First Student on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, plus at the #SafetyDogBusTour hashtag.

Riding a bus is the safest way for children to travel to and from school. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, school buses are approximately 70 times safer than passenger cars and 10 times safer than walking.
Spaces Available for Remaining 2019 P.R.I.D.E. Programs

Register now for the 2019 Professional Instructor in Driver Education (P.R.I.D.E.) Programs! See below for dates and details. For almost 30 years, the P.R.I.D.E. Program has been providing fleet driver instructors with powerful, non-lecture adult training techniques and philosophies that resonate with drivers and help maintain safe driving habits.

2019 Regular P.R.I.D.E. Certification Program:

View the full 2019 Program Brochure here 
View the 2019 Registration Form here
  • November 17-22
2019 P.R.I.D.E. Recertification Program:

View the full 2019 Recertification Program Brochure here
View the 2019 Recertification Registration Form here 
  • November 6
For questions or more information - please visit http://www.osba.on.ca/programs or contact info@osba.on.ca
STA Driver Honored for Evacuating Students Before Bus Catches Fire

Full Article: School Bus Fleet
Article Date: September 4, 2019


A school bus driver in Attica (NY) was recognized this summer for quickly evacuating over a dozen students from her school bus right before it caught fire. Vikki Boyce Czechowicz, a school bus driver for Student Transportation of America, serving Attica Central School District, was proceeding through her morning route on May 28th when she noticed smoke coming from under the dashboard, according to Doug Coupe, the school bus company’s Director of Communications. She then radioed dispatch that she was evacuating her 19 students. 

After the students had exited the bus, Czechowicz went back to check for sleeping students. As she came to the front of the bus, she saw flames coming from the engine area, and within minutes the school bus was fully engulfed in flames. 

“It was due to this driver’s quick thinking and school bus safety training that all the students were safely evacuated,” said Paul Overbaugh, director of pupil transportation for the New York State Education Department.

Czechowicz was honored for her actions with a Heroism plaque from the New York State Education Department and the Pupil Transportation Safety Institute.
Back-To-School Photos Are Delaying School Buses

Full Article: The Huffington Post
Article Date: September 4, 2019


Got a kid going back to school? Great! PICS OR IT DIDN’T HAPPEN. The first-day-of-school photo has become a social media milestone marked by what probably seems like every single parent in your news feed. While taking photos of kids as they head off to school is nothing new (although we might cringe at our 1990s puffer jackets, bad bangs, and neon “Saved By The Bell” backpacks immortalized in our own parents’ photo albums), social media has taken the trend to new heights.

For the record, we are 100 percent all for it. Spam those newsfeeds, parents! You can and should be proud of your kid’s achievements, and your own in keeping that child alive and thriving for another year. But for the love of God, don’t delay traffic in your efforts to get those “likes.” That’s what happened in the Niagara region (ON) on September 3rd, where school officials say one bus route to school was delayed by 30 minutes, and several others by 10 to 20...thanks in part to parents taking pics at bus stops. 

“It’s a lot of parents and drivers greeting each other — but also the photo opportunities,” Lori Ziraldo, Executive Director of Niagara Student Transportation Services, told The Welland Tribune. 

Now, not only is capturing that perfect “Look at my big boy getting on the bus!” pic evidently holding up traffic in some areas, it’s not exactly the safest option. Getting on and off school buses and crossing the street is already a major safety concern for kids. 

“It’s a great photo op for the parents as a memory, but we always mention, to keep the roads safe and keep the area safe, to take the pictures at the home, when the kids are leaving,” Const. Chuck Benoit of the Ottawa Police Service told HuffPost Canada. If you do take a school bus or transportation pic, stay out of the way of traffic and keep the kids close to a building or on the property, Benoit said. There were no reported issues of photos holding up buses in Ottawa, he added. 

In the U.S., 17,000 children are treated in hospital emergency rooms each year for injuries associated with school buses, according to Standford Children’s Health. About 19 kids are killed each year just getting on and off the bus, usually because they are struck by other vehicles or the bus itself, the hospital noted.

The Vancouver Police Department launched a back-to-school road-safety campaign Tuesday, noting that with so many young pedestrians on the road, it is everyone’s responsibility to drive carefully, responsibly, and “free from distractions at all times.” That should probably include adorable pics.
CAA’s September’s Focus Is on School Zone Safety

Full Article: Yorkton This Week
Article Date: August 29, 2019


CAA’s September focus is on safety in school zones as thousands of students will be starting a new school year. A search on Transport Canada’s National Collision Database, whose latest data is from 2017, revealed that nationally, the highest number of pedestrian deaths for children under the age of 14 is in the month of September.

To bring attention to unsafe practices in school zones, CAA Saskatchewan has conducted school zone safety assessments through a hand-held CAA-owned mobile tool. The CAA School Zone Safety Assessments were conducted in spring 2019 at two Regina elementary schools. During the assessments, risky driver and pedestrian behaviours were observed and tracked during a regular school day. Results indicated that school zones are indeed becoming more dangerous. For drivers, the top three risky behaviours that were observed and tracked were speeding, stopping in a ‘no stopping zone’ and no stopping at stop signs. For pedestrians, the top two noted risky behaviours were jaywalking and failing to look both ways before crossing the street.

Risky behaviours are still prevalent in school zones as indicated in a national poll conducted by CAA from August 14 to August 19, 2019. More than 9 in 10 (92%) parents surveyed said that they have noticed one or more bad driving behaviours by motorists compared to 86% reported in 2017, the last time CAA polled on this topic. Driving over the speed limit was the top reported behaviour with a result of 70% in 2019, followed by 52% seeing others illegal park or stop in a school zone.

When asked what contributes to unsafe behaviours in school zones, 59% said that parents/guardians are in a hurry or are too rushed, 44% said the school zone is too congested, and 42% said that parents/guardians are not following the drop off or pick up procedures.

To help improve the safety in our school zones, CAA Saskatchewan has prepared some noteworthy public safety tips:

Talk with your kids about pedestrian and traffic safety rules:
  • Always stop, look both ways, listen and think before safely crossing the street. Children should never run out in traffic or between parked cars, buses or buildings, use cell phones for texting, phoning, or playing games while walking or cycling. Remember, keep your head up and be aware of your surroundings.
  • Make eye contact with the drivers before proceeding into the intersection.
  • Watch for CAA School Safety Patrollers on duty and follow their instructions.
  • Plan your child’s walking route to and from school and walk with them to better familiarize themselves with the school and surrounding area. Always have an older student or adult walk with younger children.
  • Walk on the sidewalk and cross at street corners with traffic lights or at a crosswalk only.
  • Good walking gear is important including comfortable shoes with traction.
Kids being transported via school bus/van or personal vehicle:
As reported in the recent CAA national poll, 36% of elementary school-aged children go to school via school bus or van, 34% are driven in a personal vehicle, and 24% walk.
  • Know your route and talk with the school administrator in advance to determine drop off, pick-up, no stopping, and parking zones. Park a couple of blocks away to avoid traffic congestion and safely walk the rest of the way with your children. Don’t park illegally.
  • Help your kids be on time for pick-ups, while waiting in a safe place that’s well back from the edge of the road. Remind them to cross in front of the bus and never behind. Students should always stay seated facing forward.
  • Watch for school buses. Always stop for the buses’ flashing lights and wait for children to get safely on or off. Stay alert and watch for children or parents crossing the road when the bus moves on. 
Learn the rules of the road in your community to help keep school zones safe:
  • Maintain your speed according to the posted speed limit. In Regina, the speed limit in school zones was recently changed to 30 km/h, 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., 7 days a week. The 30 km recommendation is based on research that indicated there is a substantial increase to the survival rates for pedestrians struck at this lower speed compared with 40 km/h.  
  • Please check with your municipality for speed limits and regulation times in school zones, parks and playgrounds.
  • Be alert. Anything that takes your focus away from the road counts as distracted driving.
  • Texting is especially risky as drivers who text are 23 times more likely to be in a crash or near-collision event.
  • While driving, do not text, use apps or read emails and avoid eating and drinking when you’re behind the wheel.
  • Be patient. Sometimes pedestrians need a little more time to safely cross at intersections.
Order Your OSBA Publications For Back-to-School Now!

Visit the OSBA website at www.osba.on.ca and click on the "STORE" tab from the home page to order the following OSBA publications. Or click on the links below and go directly to each order form:
Once you have completed the necessary order form, please scan/email it to info@osba.on.ca or fax it to 416-695-9977.
 
 
Copyright © 2019 Ontario School Bus Association
All rights reserved.  This publication is intended for the exclusive use of OSBA Members.  Reproduction without prior permission is prohibited.

Contact OSBA:
3075 Lenworth Drive, Mississauga, ON, L4X 2G3
Tel.416.695.9965 Fax 416.695.9977  
info@osba.on.ca | www.osba.on.ca
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Please address all enquiries and submissions to info@osba.on.ca  Opinions expressed do not necessarily express the opinions of the OSBA or its Board of Directors. Nor does acceptance of advertising constitute endorsement.






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