It's been said before, and will undoubtedly be said again: Weyburn's policy to not allow flashing lights and the stop arm to be used on school buses is nothing short of asinine.

To go further, it's completely illogical, and is downright dangerous - it's about time something was done for the safety of our children who travel to school by bus within the city.

It boggles the mind that safety equipment on school buses are actually not allowed to be used within city limits, even though everywhere else the equipment is not only used, it's mandatory that it be used.

Clearly, it cannot be that councillors want any child to be hurt or killed, as that would be reprehensible beyond understanding; so what are they waiting for? The provincial government?

The problem I'm having here is that inaction cannot be justified, and will in fact result in a child being hurt or killed; passing it off by saying, "Oh, we want the province to enact the legislation " is nothing more than passing the buck. The NDP obviously never intended to act (or else they would have); with a new government leading our province for the first time in 16 years, maybe this legislation will finally come forward, but I'm betting it won't be a high priority when they're going to be setting up a new administration. A change in government is going to take time.

Meantime, our children are in danger, as proven by yet another recent incident where a young girl almost got killed after exiting a school bus. The last time a city councillor had the audacity to raise this issue, a child was nearly killed that time too; it really begs the question, what are councillors waiting for?

In thinking about this issue, it occurs to me that there might be a way to force council's hand without a child having to get hurt in the process. One way would be for a courageous bus driver to just go ahead and use the safety equipment, and if he or she is ticketed for it, fight the ticket, and the city's inaction, in court, and bring this issue to the forefront in the legal arena.

If council still didn't act, they may find themselves at the wrong end of a lawsuit; if a boy or girl was hit because a motorist simply had no way of knowing whether children were exiting a bus or getting on it, I would think that child's parents would want to sue the city for not acting when they had the opportunity to.

Do I sound serious about this subject? The reason is simply that there is no reason why our children are being put at risk when the municipality has the authority to enact a bylaw, authorizing buses to use the equipment they are supposed to be using.

The point of the equipment is to warn motorists that children may be either getting on or off a school bus, and there is a prescribed distance vehicles have to stop in behind or in front of the bus. If the equipment is simply not used, motorists have no idea if or when children are going to exit and cross the road.

A final point is that if a motorist is held up for a minute or two to allow children to safely cross a street, isn't that better than seeing an innocent child badly hurt, or killed? Nobody wants to see that, and the sad thing is, it's completely preventable.

Now, it's possible it's only me who thinks our children's safety is important - I sincerely hope not. What would be nice is those who feel likewise will contact members of city council and Mayor Debra Button, and voice their opinion as parents and as members of the community.