Across the country last week, thousands of drivers were ticketed for passing stopped school buses and in the process received some rude awakenings on school bus safety.
Several newspaper accounts over the past few days have recounted frustrations with law enforcement activities targeting motorists who apparently don’t know the law when it comes to overtaking a school bus engaged in the loading and unloading of students. The Bradenton (Fla.) Herald spoke to several drivers who were caught red-handed. Not surprisingly, many said they were unaware of the laws regarding what to do when coming upon a school bus with its red lights flashing and stop arm extended. Locally, 59 drivers were cited by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office Traffic Unit during National School Bus Safety Week.
One driver complained that she was driving on the opposite side of the highway when she was pulled over. Most municipalities, and many states, have laws that dictate that only on roads with raised medians, highway dividers, unpaved sections of at least five feet may motorists continue on without stopping for the school bus.
A fine of $271 in Bradenton may seem a steep price to pay to these drivers, and others, but I venture a guess that the guilty will remember to stop the next time they come across a school bus stop while receiving or discharging children. A number of states recently have passed stronger laws students at school bus stops, such as North Carolina’s Nicholas Adkins Act that goes into effect on Dec. 1. Named after a 16-year-old boy struck and killed by a passing motorist in January, it not only makes it a felony to kill a pedestrian when running a school bus stop arm but authorizes school districts to mount cameras on stop arms to help police go after these violators and prosecutors to use the evidence in court.
Sometimes its best to pay for costly mistakes with ones pocket book than with a guilty conscience after killing an child. The judge who sentenced a 60-year-old women to probation for killing Adkins said the true penalty is “the remorse she will carry with her for the rest of her life.”
