If anything, we are inundated with too much detail. With the advancements of the internet, cellphones and various chat groups we are simply drowning in detail about many frivolous things. So why is it, when important events occur, we are presented with nothing but frivolous fluff?
A school bus collision reportedly occurred on Old Stage Road south of Woodstock, Ontario on the morning of Wednesday, February 18, 2026. There were 40 students on the bus and 4 were taken to hospital with minor injuries. Typically this is the only detail that would be publicly revealed.
The OPP, who investigated the collision, were most gracious to provide a single photo of the collision site, which is shown above. But nothing else.
What has not been revealed is that the characteristics of Old Stage Road in the vicinity of the collision were challenging, at best, even in good environmental conditions. Old Stage Road is very winding and its width in the area where it contains a gravel surface is well below the 6.0 metres that would typically exist on most local roads. A view of Old Stage Road is shown below in a segment west of Middletown Line and this is an area where the road contains a hard paved surface. Just 500 metres east of this location the surface becomes gravel.
The next Googlemaps view shows a segment of Old Stage Road east of Middletown Line as the surface becomes gravel.
In a rare occasion the local television news agency, CTV News, provided a supplementary article wherein they provided commentary from a student, Greyson Landry, who described the collision as it happened. A segment from that article is posted below:
“Grade 8 student Greyson Landry, 13, was one of the East Oxford Central Public School students in a Langs school bus as it swerved on an icy road, “She went to one side of the road to the next, then back and then into the ditch pretty hard.”
And he said the rough ride wasn’t done there, “First we hit forwards against the seat, and then everybody goes to the right side of the bus.”
This description is revealing. The motion of the bus to the left and right is typical of a loss-of-control where a driver goes through actions to gain control of the bus but then eventually fails. Greyson Landry’s description of moving forward and then moving to the right is also consistent with what would be expected.
CTV News also attached a photo in their article reportedly submitted by Greyson’s mother, Meagan, and this is reprinted below as, through her submission, she is not claiming copyright to the photo.
The CTV News article quoted Meagan Stacey who claimed that the gravel road surface where the collision occurred “was just an ice rink”. The content of the article suggested that Stacey was concerned that the school bus was allowed to travel on this roadway in the icy conditions.
The CTV News article indicated that individual bus companies decide whether their buses will run or not, as indicated by the short segment from the article below:
“My Big Yellow Bus is a non-profit transportation consortium for the London District Catholic School Board and the Thames Valley District School Board. They distribute information on their website and through social media. According to information provided on the website, individual bus companies decide whether to run or not.”
I do not believe that the above information is accurate. The consortium being referred to is actually called Student Transportation Services and it is they who are responsible for evaluating the weather conditions and then informing the individual bus companies whether they will run or not.
There are particular concerns about what happened in this collision. Number one is that the environmental conditions made the road surface icy. This was a greater problem along this road segment because it was narrow, contained many sharp curves and the surface was gravel.
Secondly, there is a continual shortage of bus drivers resulting in new drivers being hired with relatively little experience. This road segment of Old Stage Road required that a skilled and experienced driver operate this bus because of its road and surface conditions. There has been no information provided about the skill and experience of the bus driver.
Thirdly, there is evidence that a major disaster was averted, mostly due to luck rather than superior procedures and planning. The rest position of the school bus is shown at an almost 90 degree angle with respect to the roadway. Such an angle has been documented over numerous collision investigations where a vehicle begins to rollover. So the bus was at the brink of commencing a rollover and what likely stopped that rollover is that the side of the bus came against some bushes and small trees. Had the bus rolled over the injury consequences would have been less predictable.
For many decades there is been an issue with school buses with respect to installing seat-belts and Transport Canada has avoided that mandatory installation to the dismay of many who do not fully understand this issue. Seat-belts, when not worn properly, in instances of substantial collision forces, can become the mechanism of major injury to children predominantly in the vulnerable, abdominal region. This problem exists with adults but becomes much greater when children are involved. So a dilemma exists whereby some kind of “restraint” of children is required but not a restraint that is typical of a seat-belt designed for adults. Some sort of child seat, booster cushion, or some combination of both, needs to be designed specifically for children on school buses. And, so far, this has proven to be a challenge.
Transport Canada has emphasized their “compartmentalization” whereby the bus interior is designed to keep children within compartments around where they are seated. While there has been some benefit to this thinking it is inadequate. A major segment of school bus collisions occur in the manner shown in this Old Stage Road collision whereby a school bus goes out of control, rotates to a sideways position and then rolls over. During that sideways motion and during that rollover there is little, or no protection provided to children who end up striking the side interior of the bus. Many such contacts can be “minor” but not all. There are many stiff and protruding areas on the side interior of a school bus that pose safety problems. This lacking of protection needs to be revealed even when it is not easily corrected.
Also, while compartmentalization has included the concept of preventing ejection, that outcome still remains a concern. Recent rollovers of school buses in south-western Ontario suggest that ejection is not being eliminated and children are capable of being ejected through the side windows.
The present collision involved a lucky avoidance of a major tragedy, It had little to do with good planning and procedures. Particular attention must be paid to those roadways that are of a lower standard such as Old Stage Road. Those responsible for deciding whether school buses drive on this road must take into consideration, not only the general weather conditions in the area, but also the specific characteristics of a low volume road where those weather conditions are likely to be of greater effect.
UPDATE: February 20, 2026 1010 Hours
I have spoken with a representative of one of the bus operators in south-western Ontario and I stand corrected about my comment that Student Transportation Services is the group that decides whether buses are cancelled. The bus operator representative indicated that the decision is made through discussion amongst the managers of the various bus operators and a consensus is reached. It is not clear to me how this decision is made and what factors go into making that decision. I am told that certain bus routes are designated “Red Zones” and I understand that these routes are judged to be more problematic such that buses driving these Red Zone routes would be cancelled before others. What factors go into determining what is a Red Zone route is not clear. But it would likely be something that could pose greater danger to the bus than a typical route.
Regardless, I stand by my comment at the end of this article. Whoever makes decisions about cancelling or proceeding with bus routes must understand that not all routes are the same and some routes are likely to be affected by weather conditions more than others. Low volume routes for example may not be maintained with plowing, or salting/sanding, as roadways of higher traffic volumes. And this needs to be understood such that some routes may need to be cancelled when others may not.
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