A concerned school bus driver says a number of drivers in the Pinnacle Ridge and Riverstone Pointe subdivisions aren’t stopping when his flashing red lights are on and he’s worried that someone might get hurt.
“This week alone I’ve had three people drive by the bus,” Robert Perry told the Gazette earlier this month.
He said he’s noticed a recurring problem in the Pinnacle Ridge and Riverstone Pointe subdivisions, which he visits twice daily on his regular route.
He said the problem is especially bad around 8:15 a.m. when many people are likely going to work.
“There are so many new people out in those estates, I don’t think they’ve got a clue what the law is,” Perry said. “My concern is that one day someone is going to get hurt.
“Now I have to be fair, they don’t come racing by or not all the time,” Perry said.
Perry, who works for the Greater St. Albert Catholic Regional Division (GSACRD), says he often has children cross the road after they’ve been let off the bus.
“My concern is that one day someone is going to get hurt just because someone thinks that they don’t have to obey the law or the law is not for them,” he said.
Perry said he hasn’t noticed a problem in some of the older subdivisions in the area.
“People stop instinctively. In fact they even stop when I’ve got my yellow flashers going,” he said.
“But those two new estates, where there are a lot of new people coming in all the time … they just don’t seem to do it,” said Perry.
He said he does have the occasional driver stopping for the bus.
On several occasions, Perry said he has been able to jot down the licence plates of drivers who fail to stop for the bus. He said he’s also notified Morinville RCMP about the matter.
Staff Sgt. Mac Richards of the Morinville RCMP detachment said cars that fail to stop for school buses is a concern for the detachment as a whole.
“It’s always a concern when school is back in and ultimately it’s the safety of the kids that’s paramount,” he said.
“It’s either people not paying attention or just simply choosing to disregard it and they’re putting the safety of the kids at risk because they’re too impatient to wait,” said Richards.
“It doesn’t usually take very long to load a bus.”
Richards said passing a school bus with its flashing red lights on carries a $402 fine.
“Everyone knows the rules, it’s just a matter of people actually following up with it.”
