The owner of the largest coach bus company in Atlantic Canada is calling for more industry regulations following the tragedy in Humboldt, Sask., last week.
“This is Canada. It hits close to home, so as soon as you hear it you feel it,” says Mike Cassidy, president of Maritime Bus.
Cassidy says last week’s crash has prompted him to ask more questions about bus safety and what improvements should be made.
He believes it all starts with buckling up.
“The problem we have in our industry is (seatbelt use) is not regulated, it is not mandatory,” said Cassidy.
The majority of coach and minibuses built before 2015 do not have seatbelts. That’s reigniting the debate over whether seatbelts should also be mandatory on school buses.
Lewis Smith with the Canada Safety Council in Ottawa says school buses meet stringent safety standards and don’t need seatbelts. But the same can’t be said about coach buses.
“We are absolutely in favor of seatbelts on coach buses and we’ve been advocating for it for years for the simple reason coach buses have their own unique set of circumstances surrounding safety that aren’t really necessarily present when it comes to school buses,” explains Smith.
Some of those factors include the speed that a coach bus travels at and how they are designed with large panoramic windows.
Mike Cassidy says he’d like to see multiple levels of government, industry leaders, manufacturers and users come together and form new industry regulations.
“We have to make a decision as to what do we want to do, what will the policy say, how will it be regulated and policed.”
The safety council says it’s been pushing for sealtbelts on coach buses for several years. They say if one positive thing can come out of such tragedy, it’s that people are addressing bus safety.
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