Let's remember Adam, new safety campaign urges(UPDATED)

This new decal has been placed in the back of Mattawa school buses to remind drivers not to pass them when they've stopped to drop children off. The decal is part of a new safety campaign launched Thursday by the OPP and partners at the East Ferris Community Centre and Arena. Photo by Phil Novak.
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Dave and Deb Ranger don’t want any other family to go through what theirs has.
The Ranger’s son Adam had been struck and killed Feb. 11, 2000 in front of his Mattawa home when a truck ignored flashing red lights of the five-year-old’s school bus and failed to stop.

The driver, John Nikitin, of Sudbury, was sentenced to a 22-month house arrest and banned from driving for five years.

Adam’s legacy, though, will “live on forever,” Mattawa Mayor Dean Backer says, in part due to a new traffic initiative launched Thursday by the Ontario Provincial Police North Bay detachment, in conjunction with the Ontario Transportation Ministry, the Mattawa Group of Four Police Services Board, and Student Transportation Services.

The campaign includes a decal which will be placed in the back of Mattawa school buses in Mattawa.

There’s a picture of Adam on the decal and the words “Let’s Remember Adam—Stop For The School Bus!”

Staff Sgt. Rob McDonald, commander of the OPP North Bay, Mattawa and Powassan detachments, unveiled the decal during an annual bus safety training program at the East Ferris Community Centre and Arena.

“We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for a tragic accident four years ago, and one of the ways we can help remember Adam is unveiling this poster a that’s going to go on the back of school buses in our area as well as asking permission to put them on the back of OPP cruisers in the North Bay, Mattawa and Powassan detachments,” McDonald said.

“Every day Monday to Friday children go to school. They’re our hopes; they’re our future, our future leaders. One day one of those children could solve the cure for cancer or be our future Prime Minister so we have to take school bus safety seriously.”

Backer said Adams death was something “we’ll continue to feel” for decades to come.

“Adam’s legacy will live on forever. Dave and Deb, you are truly special people in our community and this is all about Adam.”

The Rangers had approached the OPP with the idea of using Adam’s picture in some sort of safety campaign.

“We just don’t want to see any other family go through what mine went through and we certainly don’t want to see any other children’s lives lost because somebody failed to stop for a school bus,” Dave Ranger said.

“It’s very important that drivers who are not obeying school bus safety laws realize that it’s not just a matter of a fine or losing the six points but possibly the loss of a child’s life and causing unfixable grief to a family.”