Here are a couple of interesting facts about school buses:
* School buses are the safest mode of transportation for getting children back and forth to school. In fact, students are about 50 times more likely to arrive at school alive if they take the bus than if they drive themselves or ride with friends. (Souce: U.S. Department of Transportation)
The student fatality statistics for annual average fatalities during normal school travel hours is 58% traveling by teen driver; 23% traveling by adult driver; and a meager 1% traveling by school bus. (Source: American School Bus Council. NHTSA FARS 2001-2008)
* School buses keep an annual estimated 17.3 million cars off roads surrounding schools each morning. Every school bus equals 36 cars. (Source: American School Bus Council)
By the mid 1940s, most states had traffic laws requiring motorists to stop for school buses while children were loading or unloading. The justifications for this protocol were that:
* Children, especially the younger ones, have normally not yet developed the mental capacity to fully embrace the danger and consequences of crossing safety without adult supervision. Under U.S. tort laws, a child cannot legally be held accountable for negligence for this reason. For that same reason, adult crossing guards often are deployed in walking zones between homes and schools.
* It is impractical in many cases to avoid children crossing the traveled portions of roadways after leaving a school bus or to have an adult accompany them.
* The size of a school bus generally limits visibility for both the children and motorists during loading and unloading.
("School Bus History." schoolbusdriver.org.)
We must be especially aware of school buses loading and unloading passengers. A survey conducted in 29 states by the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services found 85,279 stop-arm violations in a one-day test conducted the spring of 2013.
Here is a closer look at stats from the NASDPTS survey of stop-arm scofflaws.
• Percentage of violations: In the morning -- 45.4 percent; midday -- 4.5 percent; in the afternoon -- 50.1 percent
• Percent of violations where a driver passed a bus: From the front -- 57.5 percent; from the rear -- 42.5 percent.
(Marni Pyke. "Survey shows drivers ignore stopped school buses."
Chicago Daily Herald. August 19, 2013.)
According to the Ohio State Patrol, between 2012 and last year, more than 4,000 Ohio drivers were convicted of driving past a stopped bus while it was loading or unloading children.
(Staff. "Ohio State Patrol renews focus on school buses." WHIO. August 14, 2015.)
The law concerning drivers' obligations to stop their vehicle for buses loading or unloading passengers seems to confuse many drivers. This is especially true of stopped buses on four lane roads.
Here is the Ohio Law concerning stopping for school buses:
4511.75 Stopping for stopped school bus.
(A) The driver of a vehicle, streetcar, or trackless trolley upon meeting or overtaking from either direction any school bus stopped for the purpose of receiving or discharging any school child, person attending programs offered by community boards of mental health and county boards of developmental disabilities, or child attending a program offered by a head start agency, shall stop at least ten feet from the front or rear of the school bus and shall not proceed until such school bus resumes motion, or until signaled by the school bus driver to proceed.
It is no defense to a charge under this division that the school bus involved failed to display or be equipped with an automatically extended stop warning sign as required by division (B) of this section.
(B) Every school bus shall be equipped with amber and red visual signals meeting the requirements of section 4511.771 of the Revised Code, and an automatically extended stop warning sign of a type approved by the state board of education, which shall be actuated by the driver of the bus whenever but only whenever the bus is stopped or stopping on the roadway for the purpose of receiving or discharging school children, persons attending programs offered by community boards of mental health and county boards of developmental disabilities, or children attending programs offered by head start agencies. A school bus driver shall not actuate the visual signals or the stop warning sign in designated school bus loading areas where the bus is entirely off the roadway or at school buildings when children or persons attending programs offered by community boards of mental health and county boards of developmental disabilities are loading or unloading at curbside or at buildings when children attending programs offered by head start agencies are loading or unloading at curbside. The visual signals and stop warning sign shall be synchronized or otherwise operated as required by rule of the board.
(C) Where a highway has been divided into four or more traffic lanes, a driver of a vehicle, streetcar, or trackless trolley need not stop for a school bus approaching from the opposite direction which has stopped for the purpose of receiving or discharging any school child, persons attending programs offered by community boards of mental health and county boards of developmental disabilities, or children attending programs offered by head start agencies. The driver of any vehicle, streetcar, or trackless trolley overtaking the school bus shall comply with division (A) of this section.
(D) School buses operating on divided highways or on highways with four or more traffic lanes shall receive and discharge all school children, persons attending programs offered by community boards of mental health and county boards of developmental disabilities, and children attending programs offered by head start agencies on their residence side of the highway.
(E) No school bus driver shall start the driver's bus until after any child, person attending programs offered by community boards of mental health and county boards of developmental disabilities, or child attending a program offered by a head start agency who may have alighted therefrom has reached a place of safety on the child's or person's residence side of the road.
(F)
(1) Whoever violates division (A) of this section may be fined an amount not to exceed five hundred dollars. A person who is issued a citation for a violation of division (A) of this section is not permitted to enter a written plea of guilty and waive the person's right to contest the citation in a trial but instead must appear in person in the proper court to answer the charge.
(2) In addition to and independent of any other penalty provided by law, the court or mayor may impose upon an offender who violates this section a class seven suspension of the offender's driver's license, commercial driver's license, temporary instruction permit, probationary license, or nonresident operating privilege from the range specified in division (A)(7) of section 4510.02 of the Revised Code. When a license is suspended under this section, the court or mayor shall cause the offender to deliver the license to the court, and the court or clerk of the court immediately shall forward the license to the registrar of motor vehicles, together with notice of the court's action.
(G) As used in this section:
(1) "Head start agency" has the same meaning as in section 3301.32 of the Revised Code.
(2) "School bus," as used in relation to children who attend a program offered by a head start agency, means a bus that is owned and operated by a head start agency, is equipped with an automatically extended stop warning sign of a type approved by the state board of education, is painted the color and displays the markings described in section 4511.77 of the Revised Code, and is equipped with amber and red visual signals meeting the requirements of section 4511.771 of the Revised Code, irrespective of whether or not the bus has fifteen or more children aboard at any time. "School bus" does not include a van owned and operated by a head start agency, irrespective of its color, lights, or markings.
Amended by 128th General Assemblych.9, SB 79, §1, eff. 10/6/2009.
Effective Date: 07-01-2004; 06-30-2005
The danger of passing a stopped school bus begs this question: "Why do drivers -- who presumably would feel terrible if they injured a child -- buzz past lowered stop signs?"
Buffalo Grove, Illinois, traffic Sgt. Mike Rodriguez answered ...
"I think everyone knows the law but sometimes people are in a hurry and don't see the need to stop ... they think they can beat the arm. The excuses from drivers range from 'the stop arm wasn't out yet' or they 'just didn't see it,' which is totally not true."
"I think everyone knows the law but sometimes people are in a hurry and don't see the need to stop ... they think they can beat the arm. The excuses from drivers range from 'the stop arm wasn't out yet' or they 'just didn't see it,' which is totally not true."
(Marni Pyke. "Survey shows drivers ignore stopped school buses."
Chicago Daily Herald. August 19, 2013.)
Nothing could repair the tragedy of a school child dying as the result of a careless driver. We behind the wheel of autos -- young and old -- must take extra care to keep accidents from happening. As responsible citizens, we must know the law and obey it in order to protect all youth.
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