BARRHEAD - Town of Barrhead councillors threw their support behind the Pembina Hills School Division's (PHSD) efforts to the province to take a more active role in combating fly-bys.
On Jan. 14, a PHSD delegation, including East-Ward 3 trustee and board chair David Truckey, West-Ward 3 trustee Judy Lefebvre, and West-Ward 1 trustee Victoria Kane, told councillors that school bus fly-bys continue to be an issue and will lobby the Alberta School Boards Association (ASBA) to pressure the province to help, starting at the zone level.
The ASBA represents 61 province public, separate and Francophone school boards.
A fly-by occurs when a school bus is parked to allow schoolchildren to get on or off. An approaching motorist then flies by the bus even though it is illegal when the overhead alternating red lights are flashing.
"It's getting to be more of a problem every year," Kane said, adding that there were 85 fly-bys across the division last year. "
Kane said that between 2023 and 2024, there were 85 fly-bys in PHSD, with close to half, 42, coming in September and October 2024.
"It is getting to be more and more of a problem every year," she said.
Kane noted that in 2022, there were 15 fly-bys in those same months, and it increased to 21 in 2023.
To help ensure students' safety, Kane said schools are working with students to teach them not to cross the street when being picked up or dropped off by the school bus until they make eye contact with the oncoming vehicle driver and get the go-ahead to cross.
"That measure itself has saved kids' lives," Kane said, adding that it is only one of the measures the school division has put in place to protect school bus riders from being the victim of a fly-by.
Truckey interjected that PHSD, unlike many school divisions, owns its entire fleet. It has road cameras on all its buses and continues adding safety arms.
"The newest safety extended stop arms are expensive, $6,000 a pop," he said.
However, Truckey and Kane stated that these arms, which extend well into the opposite traffic lane on the left side of the bus, still are not enough to dissuade drivers from fly-bys.
Truckey noted several times, drivers have driven into the ditch to get around the control arms.
"Not only are they going around our buses, but they are actually hitting them and taking out the stop arms," Kane added. "Imagine how a child feels when they hear the arm snapping off. It is very traumatizing."
Kane believes one reason PHSD is experiencing an increase in fly-bys is the increasing number of newcomers to the communities it serves.
"We've had a huge population boom," she said. "People coming in from the city that don't necessarily know the dangers of going around a [school bus]. When you are in the city, there is a bylaw that you can go around a bus because they don't have their red lights flashing ... and that might be causing some confusion because they think that this applies everywhere."
Kane added that is why PHSD will ask the ASBA to launch a province-wide education campaign and pressure the provincial government to take steps to curb fly-bys.
"It seems very simplistic, but to get the [provincial government] to increase fines and demerits, we will need a push from all directions, including towns and counties, for them to get on board," Truckey interjected.
The fine for being found guilty of a fly-by is $562 and six demerit points.
Deputy mayor Don Smith asked the delegation if they felt it would be helpful for council also to ask ABMunis to lobby the province on PHSD's behalf.
ABMunis is an advocacy group that works to lobby the provincial and federal government on issues concerning its members (summer villages, villages, towns, cities, and other specialized municipalities). It represents roughly 260 members, including the towns of Athabasca, Barrhead and Westlock.
"Absolutely," Truckey responded, adding that Lesser Slave Lake reeve Murray Kerik suggested the same thing when the PHSD delegation visited them. "Talk at [ABMunis and Rural Municipalities of Alberta] and get that conversation going so that it gets pushed forward to the provincial government.
Coun. Ty Assaf suggested that the municipality go even further, enacting its own fly-by-law and asking how many fly-bys happened within the town's jurisdiction.
The trustees stated that most of the incidents happened on highways outside of town; fly-bys do happen on municipal roadways but did not have the exact breakdown.
In fact, Lefebvre said they have recent videos showing the same driver doing a fly-by on the highway and then in the Town of Barrhead.
"The most important people we have are the humans that go to our schools. I would love to hit these idiots who don't know what flashing red lights on a school bus means with a hefty fine," Assaf said, saying the provincial fine is not enough.
Later in the meeting, Assaf suggested a municipal bylaw fine of $1,500.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
