B.C. school bus overcrowded and unsafe, says parent

A Vancouver Island father is outraged over what he calls an unsafe and severely overcrowded bus his children take to school in Sooke, B.C.

"With kids sitting four to a seat and kids being forced to stand and sit in the aisle," said Steve Larvin.

He says there aren't enough available seats on the school bus that his10 and 12-year-old daughters ride.

"It'sbeen an ongoing issue. We arewhat four weeks into the school year? And it has been an issue since the very beginning of the school year," he said.

The Sooke School District is one of the fastest growing in the province, according to the district's superintendent. It had 400 new students register this year.

The district admits that more children registered for the school bus than expected this year, but it doesn't believe that safety is an issue.

"We had lots of concerns from parents, rightfully so, at the beginning of the school year. But we believe we have alleviated those problems" said Jim Cambridge, superintendent of Sooke School District.

The district added four new bus routes at the end of September, with one of the additional routes servicing the Sooke district.