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SCHOOL BUS SEATBELTS SAVE LIVES
You have always considered yourself to be a conscientious law- abiding parent. When you drive your children back and forth from home to church or the Dorchester Arena on Sunday you always make sure that they use their safety belts.
First thing Monday morning you remember to kiss your daughter/son good- bye as they climb aboard the yellow school bus to Northland Central/ St David. One of the drivers described her return bus trip from school to home was tantamount "to a raucous- riot play room for her 53 fun-filled passengers who acted as if they were all taking steroids".
The classroom teachers try to encourage a sense of decorum with the students, who are wired to move, to try and stay in their seats till then end of classes.
The school bell rings and the students run to their mobile playground- on- wheels for some fun and loud chanting while the harried bus driver tries to maintain some form of order/ sanity to drive the students home safely.
Once the children are on the bus the deportmen is the sole discretion of the bus driver. There are no seatbelts on any of the buses that drive our children back and forth from school to home. The students are not even /made to sit in their seats while the bus is in motion.
The CBC, "Fifth Estate", recently discovered that "Transport Canada" found that: "Seatbelts on school buses could have prevented thousands of injuries, numerous deaths." Role overs or side impact accidents makes pin- balls of our children bouncing off the walls and ceilings with only the high bus seats to try and keep them safe.
Too soon we forget on April 6, 2018. the Humbolt Bronco’s Hockey team where sixteen members of the team were killed and thirteen were injured in a horrific truck/bus crash. The bus was equipped with seat belts but the players/ coaches did not see the need to buckle up.
I trust the management of the Dorchester Dolphin’s Hockey team has mandated the use of seat belts for the thirty players and eight staff members when they board the bus when they play away from home?
Perhaps, it is all about the financial cost of equipping our school buses with mandatory seatbelts? Estimates are that the installing the protection comes to $10,000 per bus. A small price to pay for the safety/ life of one of our children. The Federal/Provincial governments do not blink at spending billions of dollars to twin the bridges to the USA from Windsor to Detroit. It is about time for the Ministry of Transport to legislate/fund and make it mandatory for those who ride the school buses to use the seat belts,
Parents please take a moment to "Google "School Seatbelts". Contact your elected Federal Member of Parliament Karen Vecchio, karen.vecchio@parl.gc.ca and tell her that our children’s safety should be everyone’s concern.
Len Lesser