The driver of a small school bus involved in a fatal collision with a motorcyclist in Edmonton last May was fined a mere $600 on Nov. 7 for failing to proceed through an intersection safely.
Crown counsel had asked for a three-month driver’s licence suspension for the 58-year-old school bus driver, but the judge refused, because it would have cost the driver her job.
Court documents state that the bus driver had stopped at an intersection before proceeding into the path of 21-year-old Justin Delano, who was riding a 2001 Honda Shadow eastbound on 82 Avenue. A pedestrian traffic light was green at the time, indicating that the motorcyclist had right-of-way.
The motorcycle and rider struck the front of the bus before landing in the road. Delano sustained a head injury and died 10 days later.
The judge made the point that if Delano had been in a four-wheeled vehicle, the result would probably have been much less severe. He also noted that the bus driver was remorseful and church-going.
Yes, church-going. Apparently if you’re an atheist in Edmonton and you kill someone, then you might just get that three month suspension after all!
For more on this, read the Edmonton Journal story.
A church going school bus driver is just as guilty as anyone else and saying a prayer for the victim of her carelessness is not enough. This woman is trusted with the care of children. Watching for traffic is part of the job and failing to do that is not understandable. The penalty needs to be more than a slap on the wrist.
The whole lack of consequences FOR KILLING A MOTORCYCLIST irks me no end, but consider this: the moron was driving a SCHOOL BUS! What if she failed to notice a, oh, say, a SEMI? Then you’d have dead kids, not just a dead (obviously worthless to society) motorcyclist. We’ve had far too many school bus accidents lately, so perhaps the standards should be higher for school bus drivers and maybe THEY SHOULD LOSE THEIR JOBS!.
Mistakes have consequences….. or at least they should.
Thats right up there with ” sorry officer I was way too drunk to notice that motorcycle “