A local mom is raising concerns after her daughter’s bus got stuck recently on a set of train tracks in the Wahnapitae area.

Kari Lemieux’s six-year-old daughter was heading home from school on Jan. 13 when her bus got stuck at a railway crossing.

“The back tires were stuck in the grooves of the track, and the bus driver had to get out and sand the area, with the help of a bystander. During this time, which has been estimated to be 15-20 minutes, the students were kept on the bus,” Lemieux wrote to Renee Boucher, executive director of the Sudbury Student Services Consortium. “I am not comfortable with the fact that my daughter and other children sat on the bus while the driver was in the back, applying sand.

“I am not familiar with this particular crossing but even if it is one where an oncoming train could be seen far in the distance, evacuating a bus if needed takes time and should have, in my opinion, been the priority, as the bus driver likely had no idea whether or not putting sand down was even going to work.”

Lemieux said her daughter was rattled by the incident.

“My daughter seems a bit upset about the incident. We often talk about trains and railway safety, and she knows they are dangerous,” Lemieux said. “The first thing she said when she got home was ‘mom, half the kids were on the side of the track and the other half were on the other side. The bus was right across,’ so I feel it affected her a bit.”

Although Boucher had not responded to Star inquiries, she did respond to Lemieux, who shared the correspondence with The Star.

Boucher told Lemieux the whole incident lasted about six minutes.

“The consortium was made aware of the situation at 3:40 p.m. and immediately advised the school bus operator to evacuate the bus,” she wrote. “We subsequently contacted the CP police who then referred us to the Ottawa Valley Railway, since this section of the tracks on Mill Street in Wahnapitae belongs to this company. The representative confirmed they would rectify the issue. At 3:46 p.m., while I was speaking to the representative, the school bus operator contacted the consortium to advise they had cleared the tracks. I was under the impression the children had already been evacuated at that time.”

Lemieux said her six-year-old thinks it was closer to 20 minutes, although she also points out her daughter is still young, with little concept of time.

“It is my understanding the bus driver got out and put sand down with the help of a bystander, which I feel would take longer than six minutes,” the worried mom said.

Lemieux wants answers. She is not satisfied with the response from the bus consortium and she wants to know why events unfolded the way they did.

“Even if the bus was only stuck for six minutes, that is six minutes too long for a busload of kids to be sitting idle on a railway crossing,” she said. “I’d like to find out who is responsible for maintaining the crossings — is it the municipality or the railroad? I’ve since spoken with another driver who also said it happened to her at a different railway crossing and that it is due to ice buildup. I’d like the consortium to work with whomever they need to work with to prevent this ice build-up. Does there need to be extra sand put down at crossings? Perhaps the buses need to look at better tires, especially if they’re traveling the roads on the outskirts of town.”

Lemieux said steps need to be taken to remedy the situation and to better equip buses to handle winter conditions.

“We now know this is an issue so I’d like someone to work at finding a solution that will work, before we end up with another Humboldt tragedy,” Lemieux said. “Watching a training video doesn’t always work, either. I am hoping these drivers get hands-on experiences, evacuation drills, etc.”

Kelli Sheppard, a spokesperson for the city, said Tom Davies Square has no jurisdiction over train tracks. Policy is set by the federal government and the companies themselves.

“We don’t set policy about snow removal on tracks; that information is given to us by Transport Canada and the rail companies,” she said.

Lemieux said the consortium needs to do a better job.

“The consortium should be more aware of the steps to take and whose jurisdiction they’re in. They spent time calling the wrong authorities (CP police) when they should have been aware that Ottawa Valley owns that part of the tracks,” she pointed out. “So better training and contingency planning all around. If there’d been a train at that time, six minutes would have been more than enough time for something bad to occur, and I don’t want something to happen before they realize changes need to be made.”

Boucher said she is looking into the incident.

“Please note that I am investigating this incident with the school bus operator to see why the school bus was not evacuated immediately,” she wrote. “The Sudbury Student Services Consortium has created an evacuation video to train all elementary students on a yearly basis, and it mentions the speed in which an evacuation is required if a bus is stuck on railway tracks. Please be assured all school bus drivers will receive additional training with regards to this type of evacuation.”

mkkeown@postmedia.com

Twitter: @marykkeown

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