Seatbelts will be installed on more buses within SD68 in the new year. (pixabay)

By Spencer Sterritt

buckle up

Pilot project to install seatbelts on Nanaimo-Ladysmith school buses

Sep 11, 2020 | 5:24 AM

NANAIMO — The Nanaimo-Ladysmith School District is one of two B.C. districts selected for a school bus safety pilot project.

Three-point seatbelts will be among a suite of enhanced safety measures installed on two new school buses for the district in January, 2021.

“The buses are equipped with other items including exterior infraction cameras, exterior 360 degree cameras, extended stop arms and some buses will have automatic emergency braking,” Pete Sabo, SD68 executive director of planning and operations, said.

The pilot project will begin in the Fraser-Cascade school district immediately with a single bus before rolling out to Nanaimo in the new year.

It will look at the adoption and usage of seatbelts by students on board, as well as the actions of other drivers.

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School district 68 will gather data and opinions of students, bus drivers and other staff before reporting back to Transport Canada.

Scott Saywell, SD68 superintendent, said existing infrastructure on board including high-backed seats offer a great deal of protection in most but not all cases.

“Those high seat backs provide real safe circumstances for head on collisions but less-so for side impact or roll overs, that’s where the seatbelts will come into play,” Saywell said.

Transport Canada said in a release on Thursday, Sept. 10 the pilot project is the first of its kind in Canada to include a full selection of safety measures.

Nanaimo-Ladysmith Public Schools staff believe they were selected in part due to their early adoption of seatbelts on school buses.

Two buses were introduced in September, 2019, with one operating full-time on Gabriola Island and the second used on Vancouver Island within the district.

At the time, district communications director Dale Burgos told NanaimoNewsNOW there was no plan in place to expand seatbelts on buses but they’d be added if directed by senior levels of government.

“Ultimately it’s about student safety. Every passenger vehicle out there has seat belts and this just one of those natural progressions for a school district to start using a bus with seat belts,” Burgos said.

The two buses introduced in 2019 cost approximately $142,000.

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