School bus drivers hope new safety features will stop people from driving past

School bus drivers are hoping new safety features this fall will help reduce the number of cars that unlawfully drive by when buses are stopped to pick up children.

Nine new buses have flashing stop signs at both the front and back of the bus. Older buses have only one.

It's a feature that allows the traffic to see more of the stop signs that are coming out, hopefully deter the traffic from going through our red lights.- Jason MacKinnon

"It's a feature that allows the traffic to see more of the stop signs that are coming out, hopefully deter the traffic from going through our red lights," said bus driver Jason MacKinnon.

MacKinnon will be driving one of the new buses.

"When we put our red lights on, we expect the traffic to obey the law and pay attention to what they're doing," he said. "When a student gets off the bus we're always watching where that student is. So when we do our jobs, we're expecting the public to kind of do theirs, as well."

MacKinnon says he sees 10 to 15 incidents every year, in which traffic illegally passes his bus when the red lights are flashing.

The province has spent roughly $3 million over the past two yearsto purchase30 new school busesas part of an arrangement with other Atlantic provinces, according to a government news release.

• MORE P.E.I. NEWS | Former P.E.I. resident bringing laughs to Fort McMurray
• MORE P.E.I. NEWS |Two Stratford recreation projects are finally a go