Winnipeg Transit expands live video safety feature to all 607 buses

Winnipeg Transit has given all of its drivers the ability to transmit live camera feeds during emergency situations, the city utility announced Monday.

This follows a three-year pilot project that saw 50 buses outfitted with a button drivers can hit tosend video to a central control centre that's staffed around the clock by transit supervisors.

All 607 Winnipeg Transit buses and every driver in transit's fleet are now able to send live video, the city said.

The live streams usemodems installed in transit buses in 2019 as part of a broader communications upgrade.

"There are issues on the transit buses from time to time, on certain routes and what this does is allows transit's control centre to also what's going and ensure the proper emergency services are dispatched," said Waverley West Coun. JaniceLukes, who chairs city council's public works committee.

Those services could be transit supervisors, police or paramedics, she said.

Lukes said the video has already proved invaluablein terms of making decisions about whichpersonnel to send to an incident. She also said the video has helped settle disputes when supervisors or police have been provided with conflicting accounts about what has transpired.

Chris Scott, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505, said transit workers support the videolivestreams as long as they're used solely for their intended purpose safety.

He said there is concern the video streams couldbe used to monitor bus drivers and penalize them for minor infractions.