Zurich Citizens News, 1976-05-12, Page 15Some safer than others
School bus safety - c
Last week a school bus went off
the"road near Exeter sending 30
students and the driver to hospit-
al. Only three were injured
seriously.
What is interesting, is the fact
that this particular school bus
was a fairly new one, according
to Bob Cunningham, Transporta-
tion Manager for the Board of
Education. This bus had the
padded rails and seat backs as
recommended by the Canadian
Standards Association.
Unfortunately, accoridng to
Mr. Cunningham, these padded
seats and rails have only been
standard on buses purchased
in the last three or four years.
The Board of Education has not
added padding to the older
buses.
"Ihe children.find where the
padding has been joined and
proceed to pick at it and pry
it off," says Mr. Cunningham.
The result is the padding does no
good and the damage is costly,
The Board of Education does
conduct bus driver safety semin-
ars for both direct employees of
the Board and those employed by
contractors whose buses are
used by the Board.
As far as discipline goes, Mr.
Cunningham explains, "The
driver is a delegate of the princi-
pal and as such has about the
same authority as a teacher in
a classroom."
"We definitely discourage any
physical contact, (however a driver
does have a choice in handling
disturbances. He can shout his
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Citizens News, May 12/76 -Page 15
ncern after rnis
lungs out or sent the student up
to the principal for disciplinary
action." says Mr. Cunningham.
Mr. Cunningham says the
board has considered installing
seat belts in buses but it just
isn't practical.
"I don't know how we could
manage to ensure 72 students all
had their belts on and were not
using the hard end as a "lethal
weapon".
Mr. Cunningham feels that
other than installing an adult
monitor on every bus in charge of
discipline, there is little more
Stephen gives
complex nix
At the regular meeting held
Tuesday Stephen township coun-
cil decided not to participate in
the establishment of a new
sports complex for Exeter and
area.
Council's only contribution will
be a small direct grant.
Three land severance applica-
tions w ere given tentative approv-
al. They w ere to Gordon Ratz
at Lot 11. Concession 14 and part
of Lot 11, Concession 13 and
Harry Hayter at Lot 25, North
Boundary concession.
Duc to provincial government
spending restrainsts council a-
greed not to extend the limit of
23 months on tile drain loan
approvals.
Under present regulations a
farmer wishing to obtain a title
drain loan, the work must be
completed within 23 months from
the time approval is granted by
the township.
A grant of $200 was made to
the Huron Country Playhouse
at Grand Bend and $50 was
allotted to the Huron Power
Plant Committee.
Township officials will be
attending the annual meeting of
the Huron County Municipal
Officers Association being held
today, Wednesday at Brussels.
the Board can do at present.
"This is not a good time to
bring up the idea of monitors
on buses, unfortunately, due to
the money restraints now in
effect. It would result in a
sizeable amount of wages being
added to the budget," says Mr,
Cunningham.
Educating the students to the
dangers of buses is not the
solution either apparently. Al-
though there is no county-
wide program of bus safety
instruction according to Mr.
Cunningham, there are periodic
visits to the schools by both
O.P.P. and town police to discuss
safety. The police also deal with
safety on buses in schools where
a majority of the students are
bused.
Lloyd Hewitt, manager of
Charterways in Exeter, whose
ap
company has buses used by the
Board of Education, says his
company is in much the same
position as the Board in relation
to safety features on buses.
Newer buses have padded seats
and rails, older ones do not,
However, Mr. Hewitt did say
his drivers do report students
who create disturbances to
principals and have received good
co-operation from them.
No one seems able to come up
with a solution to the overall
problem of safety on school
buses. However, somebody is
going to have to deal with the
situation. As Mrs. James Pfaff,
whose daughter was in the bus at
the time of last week's accident,
said, "Many of the children had
bumps on their heads. If it had
been steel instead of padding,
it would have been a lot worse."
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