Next week, over 800,000 students across Ontario will once again be taking the bus to school every day. In Waterloo region, nearly 30,000 students take the bus to school.

Starting next week, Ontario will join every other state and province in North America when our school buses will be picking up our students with the safer dual amber-red warning light system. Until now, Ontario was the only jurisdiction in North America to not use amber warning lights to let drivers know school buses are about to come to a stop. Think of it as a stoplight that suddenly went from green to red. Now imagine every pedestrian at that crazy intersection being a child.

Provincial data estimates that there are roughly 17,000 incidents involving drivers who blow by stopped school buses every day across our province. A pilot program in Waterloo region found that there were nearly 500 to 700 blow-bys each week. School bus drivers know this all too well. In a recent CTV News article, Jen Mazer, a certified driving instructor with Switzer-Carty transport, was quoted to say, “I had a frequency of at least three cars a day passing my red lights when I was stopping trying to” let schoolchildren off the bus.

Thank you to members from all parties who unanimously supported my private member’s bill. This common-sense change will save lives. In that spirit, let’s all do our part to keep our kids safe by driving carefully every day, but especially during the school year.