A new pilot venture on Nova Scotia’s South Shore is tackling the problem of university student protection, one school bus at a time.
Instead of the standard halt signal that pops out through a pick-up or fall-off, one college bus in the South Shore Regional Centre for Education now has a two-metre metal arm that swings out into the subsequent lane of visitors to deter drivers from passing.
The arm is geared up with two quit indicators and flashing lights, and costs about $5,500.
“We think it will be highly obvious to anyone coming up to our faculty bus,” Denise Crouse, transportation co-ordinator with the SSRCE, mentioned Monday.
“And definitely at the finish of the day, we want to boost student protection, and we sense that this is a task which is going to help us do that.”
Motorists in Nova Scotia are forbidden from passing a faculty bus when it has stopped and its crimson lights are flashing, an indicator it is finding up or dropping off learners.
The university bus serving Hebbville, N.S., was chosen for the pilot for the reason that it had the optimum range of pink-mild violations final 12 months, where by motorists disregarded the flashing lights. Cameras installed on SSRCE school buses recorded 178 violations across the region.
“Each and every time a driver passes a school bus, a scholar who’s getting on or off the bus has the probable of receiving hurt,” said Paul Ash, regional executive director of the SSRCE.
Ash said the transportation department will assess info from ahead of and after the quit arm was installed, which will figure out regardless of whether, and how, the pilot could be expanded.
This pilot venture is the to start with of its sort in Atlantic Canada. Crouse explained there are only two other folks in the nation, equally in British Columbia.
“We desired to carry it on to the East Coast to see what our information will show, and what influence it will have in phrases of protection right here in Nova Scotia,” she said.
She explained you can find no published details from the pilots in B.C. yet, but anecdotally they are looking at a “massive minimize” in pink-mild violations.
Education Minister Becky Druhan reported the province is “genuinely enthusiastic” about SSRCE’s initiative in launching this pilot venture.
“I think this is a terrific step in the correct direction, so we will be quite curious to see what the impression is,” Druhan said.