An incident last week involving a School District 91 bus ending up in a ditch at Tatalrose Road on the Southside initiated questions from residents over the safety of the width of the road as well as the depth of the ditches.

According to School District 91 transportation supervisor Tracey Syrota, the incident occurred when the bus and a pick up truck attempted to pass each other on the road.

"The bus moved over to make way for the pick up truck to pass as the road is narrow and the driver couldn't see the ditch because snow had been plowed into it. When the bus tire hit the ditch it sunk down into the snow," she said.

Syrota went on to say that the students were evacuated from the bus and another bus arrived to pick them up shortly after the incident. "There were no injuries as a result of the accident," she said.

Mike Lorimer, Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure's district manager of transportation for the Bulkley Stikine district said that Tatalrose Road has been constructed to a two lane standard

"Ditches are constructed to varying depths based on ground conditions related to soil type and moisture levels," he said.

"Our design of a road and the associated depth of the ditch is calculated to ensure that the road base is adequately drained. This protects the integrity of the road structure and ensure that the roadbase has the strength to accommodate the vehicles using the road. Ditch depths range from 30 centimetres to well over several metres," he added.

He went on to say that in cases where there are deep fills, ditches can even be much deeper than that.

"Our area staff confirm that ditches in the Tatalrose Road area are adequately constructed, but field confirmation is difficult due to the amount of snow in the area. We will review this section of road in snow-free conditions to confirm that the ditches are adequate for the road in question," he added.

Lorimer went on to say that upon receiving notice of the incident involving the school bus, a ministry area manager attended the site.  

According to Lorimer, Lakes District Maintenance then sent a loader to the site to pull the bus out of the soft snow.  a

"Ministry staff communicate frequently with school district officials about road conditions. At the time of the incident the road was well plowed and skies were clear and sunny. There were no concerns with traction or snow accumulation on the road," he said. 

Lorimer added, "At the time of the incident, the road was graded in a manner that left a 'grader step' of snow at the edge of the road. This step is left to help delineate the road during times of low visibility such as night driving or during snowfall."