‘Upsetting’ school bus driving video near Halifax under investigation

Dashcam footage of a school bus speeding through an intersection to make a yellow light, and then regaining control on the gravel shoulder of the road, has many concerned in the community of Beaver Bank.

The video shows the school bus was still making a left-hand turn at the intersection of Beaver Bank Road and Stokil Drive, when the light for the oncoming traffic turned green.

“I can’t believe that the bus is actually travelling at that speed when the light was in the process of changing,” said Dave Hessian, who recorded the incident on his vehicle’s dashcam.

“To see the dust fly from the gravel to give an indication as to his ground speed.”

In the Halifax Regional Municipality, some school bus services are provided by National Passenger Services. The company confirmed that one of their drivers was involved in this particular incident.

In a statement to Global News, they say they are investigating what happened, and that there were no injuries reported.

The company says the driver thought there was a dog running between the cars in the traffic line, towards his side of the road, and that he opted to steer wider onto the shoulder to avoid injuring the dog.

“The video and the stills speak for themselves. There’s nothing there, there was no pedestrian in any of the four directions,” said Hessian.

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He says the intersection is often very busy, and suggests an advanced green light or other traffic signal change should be made.

District 14 Coun. Lisa Blackburn says she will look into it.

“I can definitely put in the call to traffic services and have them come out and have a look,” she said.

“An advanced green will only solve a few problems. Vehicles that are trying to jump the red and make that turn at the last minute, I don’t think advanced greens are going to do all that much to curb that type of behaviour.”

– With a file from Rebecca Lau