When a vehicle passes a school bus with its alternating red lights flashing, it’s called a flyby.
There have been 19 of these dangerous and illegal acts in the Aspen View School Division in the past two months, 17 of them in the Athabasca area.
“That’s a huge concern for us,” explained superintendent Brian LeMessurier.
“The safety of our students is a very high priority for Aspen View.”
LeMessurier explained that children are in a vulnerable situation when they are crossing roads and boarding buses.
“If motorists aren’t prepared to adhere to the Highway Traffic Safety Act rules, they are really putting our students in danger, they are putting our drivers in danger, and I know that this has been something that has been supported by law enforcement,” he explained. “To see 19 flybys with 17 in Athabasca, that’s staggering. Those numbers are up sharply.”
LeMessurier said the amount of flybys show that people are very busy.
“They are wanting to get from point A to point B in as quick a time as they can, and in doing so if they are flying by buses with alternating flashing red lights, they are putting students and drivers in a very vulnerable position, and it needs to stop,” he said. “We look for trends and any flybys are too many.”
Each flyby is reported at Aspen View’s transportation meetings.
“This is an obvious drastic increase in the number of flybys, so we’re going to get articles put into school newsletters, we’re going to work with our police officers, and we’re going to engage any community members and agencies that we think can help us to try and reduce the number of these dangerous situations,” LeMessurier said.
“We have to count on motorists to honor the laws, and to value the safety of children and bus drivers.”
The board is going to speak with the RCMP officers in the Aspen View division and make them aware of the rising number of flybys.
