July/August issue of WorkSafe Magazine
Read the latest issue of WorkSafe Magazine, featuring articles on protecting B.C. bus drivers from acts of violence, stopping workplace exposure to sensitizers, honouring those who shaped B.C.’s agriculture industry, and more. Preview the cover story below.
All aboard with bus safety barriers
Thanks to a unique collaboration between B.C. bus companies, their unions, and WorkSafeBC, new safety barriers designed to protect drivers from acts of violence will soon ensure an easier ride for Coast Mountain Bus Company drivers, and their customers.
A major pilot took place in 2015 and 2016 between BC Transit and TransLink’s Coast Mountain Bus Company (CMBC) to test various safety barriers meant to protect bus drivers from acts of violence. While BC Transit is in the final pilot phase, the Lower Mainland’s CMBC is satisfied that they’ve found the right barrier to protect their drivers, and the company is installing permanent windshield-like barriers on all new buses — a measure many workers and employers say prevents dangerous or unwanted exchanges with problem passengers.
New buses equipped with barriers are expected to begin arriving by early 2018. Near the end of 2017, CMBC will begin retrofitting 208 of its conventional buses with barriers, a task it hopes to complete within two years. Read more in the July/August issue.