OTTAWA, Ont. – The transportation committee for the Ottawa city council announced on March 4 that it would be investing $600,000 into hiring more safety officers for the city’s public-transit sector. The intention is to reduce the amount of traffic collisions involving city-owned buses and trucks, including OC Transpo vehicles, by increasing compliance visits with additional staff. The City plans to hire six new safety officers and to move two public-works employees over to the fleet, according to local media reports. Safety officers will now have the power to suspend a driver’s authority to operate any municipal vehicles or equipment, although the employee may still drive his or her own personal vehicles. Recent information from the federal Ministry of Transportation has said that buses and trucks owned by the City of Ottawa were involved in 942 collisions from 2013 to 2015. Most notably, a bus-train collision in the suburb of Barrhaven on Sept. 18, 2013 killed six people and injured 35 more (COHSN, Sept. 30, 2013).