MISSISSAUGA, Ontario — The Canadian Standards Association (CSA) has posted for public comment a draft of proposed new standards for large school buses.

In its recent newsletter, the Ontario School Bus Association (OSBA) said that the CSA Technical Committee on School Buses has been working on the D250-12 standard over the past couple of years. The new standard will replace the current D250-07 standard, and when D250-12 is finalized, it will become law.

Most of the changes from the D250-07 standard are “housekeeping” in nature, cleaning up language and clarifying some requirements, OSBA said. The most significant changes are the requirement for side mirrors to have remote control adjustment, and there are accessibility requirements for school buses that are designed to be wheelchair accessible.

According to the D250-12 draft, the accessibility requirements were taken from CSA D409, “Vehicles for the transportation of persons with physical disabilities.”

“The rationale for including these requirements in D250 was to make it easier for industry to know which D409 requirements were applicable to the construction of school buses, for a handrail to be located at the service door entrance and for a side intrusion test to assess the suitability of new materials used in the construction of the school bus body,” the draft states.

To view the draft and make comments, go here.

The public review period ends on April 29, but OSBA encourages comments to be submitted by April 13 so that they can be discussed at the upcoming CSA Technical Committee on School Buses meeting.

The committee will review all public comments before finalizing the standard, OSBA said.