Commercial passenger bus safety regulation (i.e. transit buses and motor coaches) is a shared responsibility among federal and provincial/territorial (FPT) governments.
Transport Canada (TC) establishes the Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, which includes specific safety requirements for buses, such as brake and visibility systems, window retention to prevent passenger ejection, emergency exit requirements, lighting, tires, and wheels.
TC also regulates some aspects of inter-provincial bus operations, such as hours of service to mitigate the risk of fatigue.
Provinces and territories are responsible for enforcing safety regulations on Canada’s roads and highways, driver and vehicle licensing, and rules of the road (e.g. speed limits). They also enforce federal requirements (e.g. hours of service).
Accidents like the January 2019 fatal collision at Ottawa’s Westboro transit bus station, the 2018 Humboldt bus crash and the 2013 collision involving a VIA Rail passenger train and a transit bus, have focused attention on the safety of buses.
To advance a national approach to bus safety, TC works closely with provinces and territories through the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA – the key FPT body mandated to support the Council of Ministers responsible for Transportation and Highway Safety on these matters). For example, for inter-provincial buses:
In June 2017, TC published regulations requiring electronic stability control in commercial passenger buses and commercial heavy trucks to help improve driver control and prevent rollovers (came into force: August 2019);
In July 2018, TC published a regulation mandating seatbelts on all new motor coaches to improve bus occupant safety (coming into force: September 2020);
In August 2018, to protect road users outside the bus, TC published Safety Measures for Cyclists and Pedestrians around Heavy Vehicles;
In February 2019, TC released Guidelines to Limit Distraction from Visual Displays in Vehicles to reduce driver distraction in commercial buses and trucks, and in passenger vehicles; and
In June 2019, TC published a regulation mandating electronic logging devices (ELDs) in motor coaches and commercial heavy trucks to reduce the risk of fatigue-related collisions (coming into force: June 2021). For intra-provincial buses (i.e. buses that operate within a single province), provinces and territories are conducting consultations with industry to gauge support for mandating ELDs. To date, no provinces have regulated.
On January 21, 2019, the Council of Ministers endorsed the CCMTA’s national workplan for commercial motor vehicle safety, which includes initiatives that enhance bus safety, namely, developing a national approach to minimum entry level driver training, and a technical standard for ELDs.
The CCMTA will report to the Council of Ministers in January 2020 on progress towards a national approach for minimum entry level training for commercial drivers, including bus drivers.
In parallel, TC has launched a transit bus research and crash testing program to inform a possible future crashworthiness standard to better protect transit bus passengers. It is expected that results of this crash research will be available in winter 2020.
