The Lloydminster Public School Division is celebrating after their National Bus Safety Week campaign.
The division partnered with the RCMP and Second Cup to give out drink sleeves with the slogan “Reds Flashing… No Passing!” printed on them, in an effort to keep children safe by reminding the public of driving regulations near buses.
Director of Education Todd Robinson says he hopes the campaign helped to drive the message home.
“I think there isn’t a person out there that doesn’t know that when they see a school bus with flashing lights and arms extended that they are to stop,” Robinson said. “But unfortunately there are too many situations where people are in a hurry, and just don’t stop. That puts children at peril and risk each and every day, so anything we can do to try to build the word and build the message to say ‘hey, this is important, don’t forget about our children’, we’re going to step up and take that chance.”
RCMP Inspector Suki Manj says the issue is an important one to the police.
“When people are doing their daily business, they want to get to where they want to get quickly, and sometimes when they see a school bus, they don’t really keep in their that there’s kids involved,” Manj said. “You’ve got to remember that kids don’t think the same way as adults, so they might do something that’s unpredictable, and that’s why we need to have standard procedures. The problem that we see is that some people think that those rules don’t apply to them, and they’ll pass a school bus while children are coming in or out of a school bus. Fortunately we haven’t seen any [accidents] in my time since I’ve been here of any students being hurt, but there’s been some close calls.”
Manj also says the RCMP will be looking for people who don’t drive safely near buses, and will ticket them.