Ontario is set to make a regulatory change that will allow school bus camera footage to be admitted as evidence alone, in cases where vehicles pass the stopped bus with lights flashing.
Transportation Minister Jeff Yurek says the current rules make camera footage inadmissible in court if the school bus driver, whose vehicle captured it, can’t take the day off work to testify.
See: Province making it easier to catch drivers passing stopped school buses
That makes the brother of Adam happy, but he wants to see more.
"It's a great idea. It's what we've been pushing for over the past few months," Pierre Ranger, Chair of Let's Remember Adam School Bus Campaign told CKAT News. "We've been pushing the government as hard as we can to try to get some regulation for these stop arm cameras on school buses.
“It’s very encouraging what the minister has said. We’re hoping they get it done but we would like to see cameras on all school buses in Ontario by September 2019,” he says.
Pierre’s brother Adam was killed in February 2000 when a truck failed to stop for his school bus in Mattawa.
See: Let's remember Adam, new safety campaign urges
Adam was 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.
The government will also introduce a law which, if passed, would permit municipalities to add additional fines to drivers who break the law and pass a stopped school bus.
Ranger says increasing the fine is not the major goal of the campaign.
“Let’s Remember Adam isn’t about the fines. We’re about child safety. These cameras are going to keep children safer and make it easier for school bus drivers,” he says.
“In February, Adam’s brother Pierre and I met to discuss his continued advocacy regarding the need for school bus stop-arm cameras," said Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli. "Our government is taking action. The safety of our most precious resource, our children, is our government’s top priority. I spoke with Pierre today who said he hopes this will spare other families from going through what their family lived through."
