Distracted, impatient drivers put school bus passengers at risk: MPI

Manitoba children have been hit by vehicles 36 times this year.

Seven of them were in September, as kids made their way back to school after the summer break.

Manitoba Public Insurance’s latest analysis of road incidents also reveals there have been dozens of collisions involving school buses in 2025.

The numbers represent “close calls, injuries and lives forever changed,” said Maria Campos, vice-president and chief customer and product officer at the public insurer.

“And they show why extra vigilance around school buses and in school zones is so critical.”

MPI unveiled a new awareness campaign Thursday calling on all road users to practise patience, especially throughout the 2025-2026 school year. Rows of yellow buses belonging to the River East Transcona School Division served as the backdrop for the event.

Martin Monette, the division’s transportation director, oversees a team of more than 100 people who get thousands of students to and from class every day.

Combined, his front-line staff rack up more than a million kilometres every year. They travel about 5,500 kilometres each school day.

Monette’s drivers are reporting that other drivers’ impatience and distractions are getting worse every year.

And they’ve come to a collective conclusion that Winnipeg Transit’s recent system overhaul is contributing to the problem by backing up traffic “more than anything.”

“Stop at a stop sign. It’s that simple.”

Asked about what motorists could do to make school-bus drivers’ jobs and, as a result, their young passengers safer, Monette had a quick answer.

“Stop at a stop sign,” he said. “It’s that simple.”

It is illegal to pass a bus with flashing red lights — an indicator that it is either loading or unloading students. The rule applies to oncoming traffic, as well as vehicles behind a bus.

The law demands that drivers stop at least five metres from a school bus if its overhead lights and stop-sign arm are activated.

Rule breakers face a $672 fine and two demerit points on their licence.

Campos noted that oncoming traffic is not exempt because children may be crossing in front of the bus. Speeding or distracted driving can have tragic consequences, she said midway through Manitoba’s annual school-bus safety week.

“Treat every school zone like your own family is there,” she said.

“Everybody just needs to slow down.”

Sandra Hofer, now a trainer in RETSD, began her 25-year career as a school bus driver in 1999.

Hofer, wearing high-visibility gear, participated in an interview from the driver’s seat of a bus equipped with a brand-new extended stop sign to replace the one knocked off by another driver when the vehicle was stopped during a run on Henderson Highway last week.

“These are your best friends as a driver,” Hofer said, pointing to the six mirrors in front of her.

Hofer did not gesture to the seventh, the largest of the bunch: a rectangular panel used for supervising children.

But student behaviour issues are not the top concern for drivers in her division; the problems are caused by commuters who share the road.

“Everybody’s just in a rush to get where they’re going,” Hofer said. “They’re very distracted. People have 100 things going on at any time.

“Everybody just needs to slow down.”

Bus drivers don’t like holding up traffic, but getting students — especially the chatty ones who don’t yet understand traffic-delay annoyances — safely on and off is more complex and time-intensive than most people waiting realize.

Over the last four years, since traffic began returning to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, school buses have been involved in 451 collisions in which MPI has recorded 105 injuries, 79 of which have occurred this year.

While noting bus drivers play a key role in protecting Manitoba students, River East-Transcona secretary-treasurer Elise Downey said parents and other community members do, as well.

“Staying mindful and aware” around buses, as well as maintaining safe speeds near schools is an easy starting point, she said.

Coun. Vivian Santos (Point Douglas), who is the city’s designated liaison for metro school boards, recently reached out to trustees to organize a standard in-school year meeting.

Downey said she anticipates school-zone safety will be a hot topic, as it often is.

Following a Free Press investigation into the city’s top ticket-generating school zones in 2024-2025, Mayor Scott Gillingham said he would consider supporting safety-related upgrades near schools if there is data to prove there are areas with chronic problems.

None of the 10 most ticketed 30 km/h school zones in Winnipeg were located in the River East-Transcona division’s area last year, according to photo-radar enforcement data obtained via freedom of information.

École Voix des Prairies (851 Panet Rd.), a francophone school within the English board’s borders, was No. 5 on the list. There were 3,429 traffic violations issued at that site between Sept. 1, 2024 and June 30.

The West End’s St. Matthews Ave. made the top 10 list twice, with a combined 5,664 speed-camera flashes going off outside Greenway School (390 Burnell St.) last year.

Eastbound traffic behind River Elm School (500 Riverton Ave.), which backs onto Talbot Avenue, was the top spot, generating 5,833 speeding tickets.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca