Emergency line closed, notifications absent. Why is it so hard to know what’s happening with your child’s school bus? ask parents who have already had to intercept a driver in the middle of their journey, a situation more common than we think.
The Journal published an article last week about a school bus trip that turned into chaos. A mother even had to block the bus to pick up her children.
Parents from different regions have since written to Journal to testify about a similar situation, including Guillaume Gingras, resident of L’Assomption.
“He was shouting at us”
On the evening of Monday, September 16, the usual driver was absent, says his daughter Sofia, 15 years old.
“We told him: ‘Sir, this is our stop,’ but he wouldn’t let us out. He was shouting at us,” reports the teenager.
As she saw the driver getting more lost, she began to panic.
His father was able to geolocate the bus around 5:30 p.m. using his cell phone and park in front of it. “I was angry. When my daughter came out, she was shaking.”
Meanwhile, the rest of the students took the opportunity to open the emergency doors at the back and escape.
At home, Mr. Gingras tried to contact the emergency line of the Center de services scolaire des Affluents (CSSDA), but it closed at 5 p.m.
“It’s okay to be lost sometimes,” adds Mr. Gingras, who believes that drivers are not paid enough for the responsibilities incumbent on them.
The problem, according to him, is the driver’s gruff attitude and the obstacles to communication with the CSS.
Electronic bug
That day, the company which operates this route called on a subcontractor carrier, explains Éric Ladouceur, from the CSSDA communications department.
Not only did the driver not know the route, but his electronic tablet malfunctioned.
If he did not let the young people get off, it is because of a policy which requires drivers to disembark them at their stop and only at their stop.
A late message should have been sent to parents, which was not done. “There are lessons to be learned from all of this,” concludes Mr. Ladouceur.
For his part, Mr. Gingras says he is satisfied with the handling of his complaint, since it was confirmed to him that the driver in question will no longer drive children.
Not the drivers fault
“I find that drivers don’t have many resources. They are pitched there,” observes Geneviève Blouin, who also experienced a similar situation in La Prairie.
At the start of the 2022 school year, she had to enter her daughter’s bus to help the driver, who did not have GPS and was lost.
The next day, this driver distributed chocolates to the young people to apologize. Today, he is still the one covering this circuit and everyone loves him, says Mme Blouin.
The fact remains that in the event of a vehicle delay, Mme Blouin does not receive any messages.
GPS is a technology that has not yet been integrated into all school buses and drivers are not allowed to use their cell phones while driving, specifies Luc Lafrance, president of the Bus Transport Federation.
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