For Mark Squire, watching his children board the school bus each day can be a tense routine — one that depends as much on passing drivers as it does on the bus itself.

The Niagara-on-the-Lake resident is a father of two students at Crossroads Public School. Every day, they take the bus to school, which stops near his home on East-West Line near Four Mile Creek Road.

When catching the bus in the morning, and getting off the bus in the afternoon, they have to cross East-West Line. Some days, he says, he’s worried about them getting across the busy street safely.

“The bus stops, they have flashing lights, they have a stop sign out — and not every driver stops for that,” he says.

About once a week, he says, he waves his arms at drivers he believes “are not going to stop.”

Niagara Student Transportation Services, which manages busing for the region’s public and Catholic boards, says 1,366 students in Niagara-on-the-Lake ride the bus daily.

The agency reports 270 crashes involving school buses in its jurisdiction since January 2021, including 10 in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Six of those crashes resulted in non-life-threatening injuries requiring emergency services.

“We thankfully have not had a student fatality in Niagara since Niagara Student Transportation Services’ inception in 2007,” it says.

Despite those figures, several parents told The Lake Report they worry about safety at bus stops, particularly on rural roads.

Janice Dodd, who lives in Virgil and has two children currently in school, says she faced similar concerns when her family lived near Four Mile Creek Road and Lakeshore Road by Konzelmann Winery Estates. Her children also had to cross the street to board the bus.

“My concern is more for pick-up,” she says. “I can’t control other drivers on the road.”

The issue has drawn attention from municipalities as well.

In March, NOTL council endorsed a letter from the Town of Plympton-Wyoming, east of Sarnia, which urges the Ministry of Education to provide additional support for school bus safety, including stop-arm camera systems and other technology.

“Illegal passing of stopped school buses remains a serious and widespread issue throughout the province, occurring an estimated 30,000 times per day,” writes Mayor Gary Atkinson.

“These violations place children at unacceptable risk and continue to result in preventable injuries and fatalities.”

The town also endorsed a school bus safety campaign that commemorates five-year-old Adam Ranger, who was killed in 2000 in Mattawa after a driver ignored his school bus’ stop sign.

“This tragedy highlights the urgent need for continued public education, enforcement and the use of technology to better protect children travelling to and from school,” Atkinson wrote.

Coun. Adriana Vizzari introduced the motion to endorse the letter. She spoke about the issue on Feb. 24 when giving a notice of motion.

She says the concerns outlined in the letter also apply to NOTL, “particularly given that many of our children wait for buses along rural roads.”

She cited narrow shoulders, higher speed limits, drivers who fail to stop and bus stop locations some consider unsafe.

“My hope is that the province will support enhanced school bus safety measures that can be implemented province-wide,” she says. “For rural communities like NOTL, improvements in enforcement and safety measures are especially important.

“Many parents have expressed discomfort with their children waiting along these roads and, as a result, choose to drive them to and from school each day.”

Kristen Stewart and her husband, James, who live near a rural stop on the corner of Line 8 and Four Mile Creek Road, say they fear for their four and five-year-old children who go to St. Davids Public School.

“The speed limit is 80 kilometres there,” Kristen says. “It’s an intersection, and Covelli’s entrance plus two-house driveways are there as well. So, it’s an extremely dangerous and busy stop.”

She says there are no sidewalks on Line 8 leading up to the stop and no sidwalks on Four Mile Creek Road to wait for the bus to stop.

“There are supposed to be seven children at that bus stop. But we are all scared to use it because of how dangerous it is.”

The couple noted the number of kids going to that bus stop is going up in the next couple years — the kids living around them will soon be starting school, they say.

James says other kids who get picked up on Four Mile Creek Road get picked up right from their driveway or the sidewalk, which they do not have.

“It blows my mind that they don’t value kids’ safety,” he says.

He also says they have been dealing with this issue for the last year-and-a-half with the town and with Niagara Student Transportation Services about this stop.

He says the town has been “fantastic” in terms of them backing their efforts, but Niagara Student Transportation Services “just isn’t budging.”

Some parents have suggested changes.

Squire says the bus could pick up his children on the same side of the street as their home, rather than stopping on the opposite side as it currently does while travelling toward the school.

Georgia MacIntosh, whose daughter rides the bus, says technology could help ease anxiety.

“I always thought it would be so helpful if there was an app to see where the bus is, sort of like Uber, so I can see when it’s coming, so she doesn’t miss it and I can see when she arrives,” she says.

Dodd says she hopes officials adopt a broader approach.

“I hope our local leaders will embrace a more contemporary, user-centred approach that includes real user research, values lived experience and measures outcomes rather than simply checking a box,” she says.

James Stewart says he just wants the route to be safe for his kids.

“We want Niagara Student Transportation Services to do what was done 30 years ago, which was come down Line 8, back up onto Tanbark, then turn back down Line 8 and then pick our kids up in front of our houses,” he says.

The Ministry of Education has a “regulatory framework” for stop-arm cameras that allows the evidence from them to stand alone in court, meaning no witness would have to appear.

It also requires all school buses manufactured after January 2005 to operate an Eight Lamp Amber-Red Warning System, which replaces the previous red-only lamps. It says this provides clearer signals for slowing and stopping and “enhances safety for road users and passengers.”

It also says it’s working with Transport Canada, who are responsible for regulations and safety standards, which include safety technologies for new school buses, such as sensors and brake systems among other safety technologies.

The ministry told The Lake Report that “drivers are legally required to stop for school buses with flashing red lights; there is no excuse for ignoring the law and putting children at risk.”