ARMSTRONG – An Armstrong mom is speaking out after the rules for taking her infant son on the bus seemed to change without warning.
Chelsea Dyer says she wasn’t able to board a bus recently because she didn’t have a car seat for her baby. B.C. Transit says the driver was just following the letter of the law. However, the same situation that prevented Dyer from riding the bus could have implications for other North Okanagan parents who take their babies on board.
Dyer was planning to take her son Jasper on the bus last week, the same way she had just a week before–strapped to her body in a baby carrier. They were headed to a doctor’s appointment for the seven-month-old but they didn’t make it very far.
“The bus driver informed me that there is a new rule that children under the age of two to be on a bus need a car seat,” she says. “We missed his appointment and just came home.”
The situation left the family confused and looking for clarification.
“If this is a new rule maybe they should make sure people are aware of it beforehand because I was kind of counting on the bus that day to be able to get where I needed to go,” says Dyer.
B.C. Transit says the driver was actually following the law. The transit authority says the bus in question had recently been delivered from the factory with seat belts and when seat belts are present other rules come into effect.
“The operator was actually abiding by the law, the Motor Vehicle Act, to decline the ridership because of the fact they didn’t have a car seat.”
B.C. Transit says they are in the process of getting permission to remove the seat belts, but until then they will be telling drivers to ask for guidance from their supervisor when situations like this come up.
“That may mean, depending on how long their trip is, us trying to get them safely to their destination or finding an alternate way to get them there. We want to try and make sure our customers aren’t inconvenienced by this,” says Barry.
There is only one bus with seat belts in the North Okanagan and it only serves Route 60 which travels to Vernon, Armstrong and Enderby. Barry could not say exactly when the seat belts are expected to be removed.
Comments