Deputy Premier and Education Minister Gordon Wyant has proclaimed October 15 as School Bus Driver Appreciation Day in Saskatchewan.

The best way to commemorate the day, according to the Weyburn Police Service, is to follow the rules when driving past a school bus. Deputy Police Chief Rod Stafford said those who don't follow these rules in Weyburn are likely to get caught.

“When those lights come on on the buses, and the stop arm finally comes out, that means that the motoring public has been given more than advance notice that the bus is intending to stop and either take on or offload passengers,” said Stafford.

Other motorists are not the only ones being signaled by the lights and stop arm. The kids also recognize these as signals of safety.

“If they have to cross the street in some small way, the presence of those lights and that stop arm gives the kids a little bit of a false sense of security in that they know the arm is out and people have to stop, so they may dash out,” he explained.

Safety and accountability are two critical reasons for school buses in Weyburn becoming equipped with safety signals and arms to help facilitate children crossing the road. Those cameras, in fact, led to two tickets being issued in the past week for violating the rules.

“The ones in-city for sure have cameras on all of them, which, of course, not only captures the license plate photo, but the actual infraction itself, so we have been getting more and more complaints where we’re laying more tickets,” said Stafford.

Every day, school bus drivers ensure that more than 70,000 Saskatchewan students are safely transported to and from school. School Bus Driver Appreciation Day is observed on the first day of Education Week, October 14 to 20, to recognize the important role that school bus drivers play in safely transporting students to and from school.