October 16 – 22 is School Bus Safety Week and we are taking the opportunity to remind everyone about bus safety practices and some of the related traffic laws.

Our students participate in exercises throughout the year including evacuation drills and safe loading and unloading practices. We ask parents to

• remind their children to be extra careful when getting on and off the bus. 
• teach their children to always obey the bus driver’s directions.
• teach their children to watch for traffic from either direction before crossing the road. 

Statistics show that most injuries to school bus riders occurred during loading and unloading.

Did you know? Traveling on a school bus is one of the safest ways to travel. Children traveling by bus are 72 times safer than those traveling by car and 45 times safer than those walking or cycling to school.* 

Pedestrian safety rules

Teach your child how to 

• Safely cross the road 
• Not cross the road during a red light
• Make sure the bus driver sees them if they need to cross in front of the bus
• Walk on the sidewalk (or the left side of the road facing traffic)
• Point, Pause and Proceed before they cross the road
• Walk (don’t run) to the bus
• Not use a mobile device (phone, tablet etc.) until they are in a safe place

Driver awareness

It is the responsibility of all motorists to know the laws and drive with extra caution when approaching a school bus from either direction. 

• The school bus driver will first signal to motorists that the bus will soon be coming to a stop to load or unload children by activating the overhead alternating AMBER lights.
• When the bus stops and the driver opens the door, the overhead alternating RED lights and side stop arm are activated. This means only one thing — the bus is loading or unloading children and all drivers approaching from either direction must come to a complete stop.

Passing the bus when children are loading or unloading is dangerous, illegal and could be deadly. 

Know the laws!

It is everyone’s responsibility to understand the traffic laws. There are several laws in place to help protect our students: 

• When a school bus is stopped and the overhead alternating red lights have been activated, traffic from both directions must come to a complete stop and remain stopped until the red lights have been deactivated.
• It is illegal to pass a school bus when the red lights are flashing. This is called a fly-by and the fine is $567 and six demerit points. 
• Often times a fly-by is the result of distracted driving – read more about Distracted Driving, including the penalties on the Alberta Government website.

Report Fly-bys

If you witness a fly-by, please report it, either to police or call the Transportation office at 780.674.8510. The more information you have the better, including a description of the vehicle involved (year, make, model, and license plate if possible), bus number, time of day, location, etc.

Roads are a shared space and shared responsibility. Let’s all do our part to keep our students and drivers safe! 

Poster contest

We also encourage students to participate in the ASTAC School Bus Safety Week poster contest! This year’s theme is “Make the World Green, Ride Yellow” The deadline to submit an entry is November 4 and details about the contest can be found here (there are prizes to be won!). A copy of the entry form has also been shared with all our schools. 

Additional resources:
https://albertahealthservices.ca/injprev/Page4866.aspx
https://myhealth.alberta.ca/Alberta/Pages/pedestrian-safety-for-children.aspx
https://myhealth.alberta.ca/Alberta/Pages/school-bus-safety.aspx
https://www.alberta.ca/school-buses.aspx
https://canadasafetycouncil.org/school-bus-reminder/ 

*Canada Safety Council, September 6, 2022 School Bus Reminder