B.C. school bus driver's campaign for seatbelts kicks into high gear
The road can be a dangerous place, and bus driver Gary Lillico knows that first-hand.
He's been the victim of a serious car crash in the past. Now, working behind the wheel of a Fraser Valley school bus, he fears for the safety of the students — especially kindergartners.
"The little wee ones, they're too young to understand the need to stay in their seat. They're just too young," said Lillico, whose regular route between Aggasiz and Chilliwack takes him onto Highway 1.
While he reaches speeds up to 100 km/h, he'll sometimes find younger students climbing over their seats. Some will even walk up to the front of the bus.
"I'll try to sit them down close to me," he told CBC News. "But it's a distraction, and if you are in an accident, they're going flying."
Lillico has started an online petition urging Transport Canada to make seatbelts inside school buses mandatory. The call came after CBC's Fifth Estate exposed flaws in school bus safety.
He says the first handful of signees were friends and family — but the petition has ballooned to having more than 80,000 signatures.
"That's a pretty solid message that there's people out here who are concerned," he said.
If it reaches the 100,000 mark, he plans to send it to Canada's transportation minister, Marc Garneau.
Flawed studies
Last fall, CBC's Fifth Estate did a deep dive into safety on Canadian school buses, exposing holes in an influential 1984 Transport Canada study that claimed seatbelts are not only unhelpful — they may also cause injuries.
Transport Canada had conducted another study in 2010 that showed that school buses without seatbelts had "failed" safety tests. The study had not been released publicly until it was requested by reporters.
Transport Canada has since stated on its website that seatbelts, when worn properly, do "offer added protection for school-age children."
Task force at work
Garneau launched a task force in January to look into the possibility of outfitting school buses with seatbelts, which falls under federal jurisdiction.
If a decision was made to make seatbelts mandatory, it would be up to the provinces to retrofit existing buses.
Representatives from B.C. are involved in the task force. In a statement, B.C.'s Ministry of Transportation said it's working with Transport Canada, as well as the other provinces and territories, to arrive at a solution.
"At this point, work is ongoing and it is too early to speculate on what changes may be made regarding seatbelts on school buses," said ministry staff in an email.
