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Vic school bus safety

BusVic has been teaching children about importance of safety in and around school buses

The Bus Association of Victoria (BusVic) has had excellent feedback from its Safe Bus Travel sessions earlier this year.

The sessions are a chance for BusVic representatives to get out in the community and teach school-aged children about the importance of safety when catching the school buses.

BusVic executive director Chris Lowe says it is now ramping up the program and will be presenting the safety sessions at a greater number of primary schools this year than ever before.

 “We visited four different schools in regional Victoria in this latest round,” he says.

“BusVic staff, local bus operator members and supplier representatives all participated in the sessions.

“I especially appreciate the suppliers’ ongoing participation in the sessions.”

The schools BusVic visited were Willaura Primary, Woodside Primary, Wycheproof College and the combined Glenrowan and Winton Primary School.

The sessions are the latest efforts from BusVic to educate and collaborate with members of the community, especially those public transport users who are most at risk continued, as part of an ongoing safety program.

The safety message is presented in fun and engaging ways children of all ages can understand and are meant to be complimentary to educational campaigns run and organised by individual bus companies in these areas.

“Many school bus operator members run regular safe bus travel sessions at the schools they service and for this they need to be recognised and congratulated,” Lowe says.

The BusVic Safe Bus Travel program has run successfully for over four years now.

“These sessions are a very important part of bus operators and Bus Vic’s corporate social responsibility,” Lowe says.

“I cannot tell you how grateful the schools we visit are.”

The students are engaged and interested and educators are always helpful when it comes to helping the children to understand the key messages around school bus safety.

“The principals are bowled over by the amount of us that turn up to their schools, the depth and breadth of the presentation, the sausage sizzle and the donations that we leave with the school,” Lowe says.

“I continue to receive thank you letters from the school principals.”

The initiative has the total support from the Victorian Government, with Public Transport Victoria (PTV) representatives sitting in on the occasional session.

“I can reassure everybody that the government is very much committed to sustaining these sessions, the PTV representatives who attended the sessions in Glenrowan on March 25 saw the virtue in the concept,” Lowe says.

The Safe Bus Travel presentations are presented by BusVic staff member Keith Foote, with a little help from the local school bus operator in each instance.

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