Kawartha Lakes supporting a bus stop arm pilot project

DAN CEARNS The Standard

KAWARTHA LAKES: The City of Kawartha Lakes is supporting an initiative to make the roads safer for students and school bus drivers.

At a meeting, on Tuesday, November 21st, Kawartha Lakes council supported a memorandum from, Ward 8 Councillor, Tracy Richardson which called for the City to provide $2,356, from the Area Rate Stabilization Reserve, towards an OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) pilot project. This pilot project would involve the acquisition and deployment of a bus stop arm camera.

“In recent years, there have been a significant surge of reported incidents, from school bus drivers and local residents, regarding unsafe practices when a school bus is stopped, as drivers are disobeying the school bus safety rules. One camera will be purchased which will be rotated on routes, for better proactive enforcement,” the memorandum stated. “This initiative is not School Board driven, it is an OPP pilot program being brought forward, to help address the increased concerns and issues. TLDSB (Trillium Lakelands District School Board) has agreed to support 50 percent of the cost, leaving a balance of $2,356.36 which I hope we can support.”

The memorandum noted, these cameras “can automatically capture stop arm violations, along with key details such as date, time and GPS location.”

“There’s 73 buses in our school system,” Councillor Richardson said. “This will allow real time reaction, to be able to capture the violations.”

She explained, this will “be a one time project,” and said she thinks “this is something we should support.”

The memorandum saw support from the entirety of Kawartha Lakes council.

“We need to support our school bus drivers. I don’t know how they do it. I could never imagine what they go through,” Ward 6 Councillor, Ron Ashmore said. “I think it’s a win-win for the safety of our students.”

The memorandum was later approved.