There are three basic cardinal sins of driving.
Don’t drive impaired, don’t text while driving and don’t pass stopped school buses.
But while these basic tenets seem relatively easy to comprehend, some Victoria Harbour parents say drivers have started to regularly flout the law by passing stopped buses in the area of Robin’s Point Road and Osborne Street.
Natasha Simpson says that her four-year-old daughter, Octavia, was just seconds away from being hit by a white SUV Tuesday afternoon when an older male driver passed the stopped bus she was exiting.
Simpsons says she firmly believes that had her daughter not needed help down the bus stairs from her 12-year-old son, William, the circumstances would have been tragic.
“She darted across the road to see me and tell me all about her day. This would have been the small time difference that would have resulted in a completely different outcome,” says Simpson, whose five-year-old son also attends Tay Shores Public School.
“She painted at school and wanted to show me.”
About nine children exited the bus on this particular afternoon with the youngest kids slowest to exit.
“The visibility heading south on Robin’s Point road passing Osborne is not impaired,” Simpson notes. “The bus and its lights would have easily been visible.”
Simpson says the driver glanced her way as he passed the bus.
“It was an older gentleman and he just continued. He actually looked at me and realized what he did.”
At the same stop a day earlier, a woman driving a white SUV became flustered while behind the stopped school bus, according to Mallory Yates, whose five-year-old son Jake also attends Tay Shores.
“The kids were getting on the bus and she’s waving her hands,” Yates recalls. “This woman just floored it with the pedal to the metal.”
Yates says this seems to be happening quite a bit these days in Victoria Harbour.
“I don’t care where you have to be, there is no reason you have to pass a school bus. It’s definitely an issue.”
Neither woman had the vehicle’s licence plate number to call the police about the incident, but both say speed is definitely an issue on Osborne Street since it serves as a kind of straightaway from Park Street to Robin’s Point Road.
“Visibility is not a problem,” Simpson says with Yates pointing out people tend to use the street as a shortcut.
“Speed has been an ongoing issue in this area for quite some time,” Simpson says. “Our community is full of children who are always out bicycling and enjoying the outdoors.”
While he couldn’t speak directly to this situation, Southern Georgian Bay OPP Const. David Hobson says police will always follow up on a report of a vehicle passing a school bus.
“It’s a concern for any OPP officer on patrol of people passing school buses,” he says, noting police haven’t received any reports so far this school year of buses being passed in the detachment’s catchment area.
He says that if video surveillance is available from either a school bus, another vehicle or concerned parent it could aid officers in their investigation.
“If community members have an ongoing speeding issue in their area, they need to make it known to the OPP,” Hobson says, adding those with concerns should call police at 888-310-1122. “Officers will note it and attend area as they can and provide enforcement.”
In Ontario, those failing to stop for a school bus that has its red lights flashing, can be fined between $400 to $2,000 and receive six demerit points for a first offence.
Those convicted a second time within five years face a fine from $1,000 to $4,000, six demerit points and could also go to jail for up to six months.
And while her younger children want to continue taking the bus because of the “fun” factor, Simpson says she’s now hesitant and has been driving to and from school since the incident.
“This was only the second time they’ve taken the bus,” she says. “I’m not sure I want them to take the bus again.
“I would hate at the end of the day for this to happen to another family. It’s important and I don’t want to see a child hurt.”
