Ontario is set to make a regulatory change that will allow school bus camera footage to be admitted as evidence alone in cases where vehicles pass the stopped bus.

Transportation Minister Jeff Yurek says the current rules make camera footage inadmissible in court if the school bus driver whose vehicle captured it can’t take the day off work to testify.

Pierre Ranger of the Let’s Remember Adam campaign is supportive of the move, but more should be done.

“It’s very encouraging what the minister has said. We’re hoping they get it done but we would like to see cameras on all school buses in Ontario by September, 2019,” he says.

Pierre’s brother Adam was killed in February 2000 when a truck failed to stop for his school bus in Mattawa.

The government will also introduce a law which, if passed, would permit municipalities to add additional fines to drivers who break the law and pass a stopped school bus.

Ranger says increasing the fines are not the major goal of the campaign.

“Let’s Remember Adam isn’t about the fines. We’re about child safety. These cameras are going to keep children safer and make it easier for school bus drivers,” he says.

Currently, drivers who pass a stopped school bus can be charged, face a fine of up to $2,000 and receive six demerit points for a first offence.

 

With files from The Canadian Press

(File photo by station staff)

Filed under: Let's Remember Adam, Pierre Ranger, school buses