Being a parent is as challenging as it is rewarding and when it comes to teaching our children what they need to know to stay safe, it can be daunting. Until last week I never even thought to teach my kids the difference between a school bus and a public transit bus, but now I think it might have been a good idea. Driving home a few cars behind a transit bus on Government Road, I didn’t think twice about following traffic that drove past the bus as it was pulled over at a bus stop. What I didn’t immediately see was a young tween who got off the bus and ran out in front of the stopped bus since there was no traffic coming in the opposite direction.
Of course, she couldn’t see me any more than I could see her.
Luckily I was going well below the speed limit and was able to avoid a collision. I think we might give our kids a false sense of security since school buses force traffic to stop — or at least the traffic is supposed to stop -- when children are getting on and off; transit buses don’t. It was a near miss. I know I’ll be even more cautious around transit buses in the future, and for those with young kids riding transit, it’s one more thing we need to teach them.
