NEWS RELEASE
GOVERNMENT OF ONTARIO
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TORONTO - Today, Jeff Yurek, minister of transportation, was joined by Sam Oosterhoff, parliamentary assistant to the minister of education, to announce new measures to give municipalities the tools they need to target drivers who threaten the safety of children crossing roads to their school or home.
The proposed regulations would allow for more efficient enforcement and prosecution by allowing evidence from [school bus stop arm] cameras to be used in court without the requirement of an additional witness.
"The safety of our most precious resource, our children, is our government's No. 1 priority," said Yurek. "We intend to create a regulatory framework that would allow for more efficient enforcement and prosecution to keep our children safer."
Ontario also plans to introduce legislation that, if passed, would allow municipalities to target drivers who threaten the safety of children on school buses with new, additional monetary penalties.
"The safety of children in our province is a priority for our government," said Oosterhoff. "The steps we are taking today will help to ensure students arrive safely to school, ready to learn."
"We fully support Minister Yurek and his government's announcement of regulatory change to permit the use of school bus stop-arm cameras as evidence of passing a stopped school bus," said Rob Murphy, president of the Independent School Bus Operator Association. "We have been looking forward to this announcement for some years. This announcement will help ensure children across our province will continue to be transported safely to and from school."
Quick facts
• Each school day, more than 837,000 students travel in a school vehicle in Ontario
• Injuries and fatalities, which are very rare, happen more often outside the school bus as students are boarding and leaving the bus or crossing the street
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