Ahhh! Now we’re getting somewhere …
That’s (a bit) more like it.
Approximately, from left to right:
Blue car = approximate location of stopped and indicating school bus(perhaps back a few lengths, closer to the head of the big yellow left arrow)
Yellow car = large truck that had moved over to exIT lane, and stopped.
Black car = You - after you having continued to proceed after both trucks had stopped.
White car = The second truck, in the lane to your right, after slowing to a stop.
I’m referring to your recent statement:
Every driver should be scanning traffic around him, whether it is on his side of the road, or on the other side of the road. I can’t imagine that you need to do anything more than “normal” viewing of the situation on the road all around you in order to notice something painted School Bus Yellow.
Here in Virginia, the police do not consider “Speeding” a safety maneuver…
Memory Lane Time… When I was a teenager in Upstate New York, (late '60s) my friend, Ricky, with a week old driver’s license received a speeding ticket while passing an 18-wheeler. When he went to court all of us went too, we wanted to see what would happen. He pleaded guilty but tried to mitigate it by using the excuse that the truck was weaving back and forth and feared that it would cause an accident. The judge asked him why he just did not slow done so he was not directly behind it. Ricky replied then he would have been late to his part time job… I guess sensing more to the story, the judge looked at the ticket’s time and asked Ricky what time he had to be at work and then asked him where he worked and the judge knew Ricky could not have gotten to work on time even if he had not been stopped… The judge then told Ricky that he did nto believe him, that he was probably speeding trying not to be too late to work. The Judge fined Ricky $50 and suspended that brand new license for 6-months…
These guys explain it better than I can. They themselves find it challenging. You can read the comments on the post:
Interesting story.
I was heading to FL from NY and was traveling in the middle lane on the highway in Virginia when I met two large semi trucks. One on the left and one on the right.
Because I understood truck’s blind spots, I didn’t want to settle between both trucks for my safety.
I sped up to get ahead of them and then resumed to my normal speed.
A trooper then came chasing after me and I pulled over to the right.
This was what he said to me:
“ You were going over 80mph and this means I’m to arrest you. “
I was shocked as hell and told him he must be kidding me.
He took my license and went to his car for 5 minutes before returning to ask where was I going. I told him FL.
He said “ I’m going to write you up and say you were going 79mph. You’ll need to pay a fine. “
I explained myself why I sped, and he said “ In the state of Virginia, you go to jail for going over 80mph.”
I thanked the cop and paid the fine. $150.
In the second posting a driver said that all the traffic was stopped for the Stopped School Bus for about 2-minutes, since no children were present, the bus driver stuck his arm out the window and tried to wave the traffic through… The driver noted that no one moved and questioned why the bus driver just did not close the door and turn off the STOP Lights…
He is exactly correct, if the School Bus Driver leaves the lights on and then tries to wave you through, do not fall for it. The Driver cannot vacate the law, the Driver should close the door and turn off the lights… The Law governing passing a stopped school bus does not differentiate children present of not…
In this video from Westland, Michigan, warned the public that passing a stopped School Bus was illegal and dangerous they were going to take action and boy did they… This video stats with the bus stopping and the traffic just ignoring it and then the police “swarm” out to pull all of them over… Enjoy!
Yes I do, and no it’s not. From your quote from the Revised Code of WA:
That double yellow line qualifies as a dividing section, and the driver need not stop.
Here’s some guidance from the county sheriff:
This is going far off topic, but I sometimes see a bus stop in front of a house picking up a single student. I find that odd. When I was a school kid riding a bus (late 70’s early 80’s), the district wouldn’t make a bus stop for fewer than 3 kids.
I think it likely varies by neighborhood. In my neighborhood, the bus makes “centralized” stops every few blocks, and typically anywhere from 3-6 kids board and exit the bus at those centralized stops. However, in the really rural areas where it would be dangerous for anyone to walk in the narrow roadways, the buses stop at every house where one of their kids lives.
I have nothing against the law requiring traffic to yield to school buses. If anything, I’m a big supporter.
I’ll always stop when I “ see” one.
However, I think it is foolish to require the opposite direction on a large road of 4 to 6 lanes to stop for a school bus. I have never seen a child leaving a school bus to walk all the way over to the opposite side of a a road. I believe such is risky for a child to. I wouldn’t want my kids or small relatives to do that.
This law also creates more safety issues than solving issues. You don’t want to suddenly brake up on a highway and getting rear ended. You don’t want to take your eyes off the car in front of you and end up rear ending it. You also must make sure no one exiting a gas station or a store lot into your path.
This law, when I look deeply into the issue, is very weird, and I’m not the only one who thinks it is.
Some times a school bus doesn’t flash its yellow lights for a reasonable length of time to warn drivers; there are many times a bus driver would abruptly turn the yellow lights on, followed with a red light in the split of second.
It’s the law and driving is a privilege. I’ll just need to drive more intense these days.
Twinkie wagon! 
That diagram applies to the state of Washington.
In the state where orig. poster Clueless’ incident took place - New York - based on his description of the road involved, you must stop for a stopped & indicating school bus also in the middle two examples.
Again, varies state by state.
In the NYC Metro area, kids call it “the short bus”.
I’m from NY metro, southwest Connecticut. I’ve heard both.
It might be different in the The Nutmeg State, but in Northern and Central NJ and in NYC, the term “short bus” is usually used by students as a pejorative because the “special” students are almost always transported on the smaller buses.
I understand you feelings and I think it’s ridiculous for all traffic everywhere to stop… The laws governing school buses were written before we had the multi-lane highways, back when road were mostly two lanes… Additionally, back then kids in urban schools walked to school and really only the rural kids rode busses.
In the '50s and '60s, when I was going to school, city schools were mostly situated so that if you lived within 1-1/2 miles of school, you walked, there were no school buses. When I went to a rural school, I lived about 15-miles away and we rode a school bus…
In my subdivision today, we have a main road through it and all homes are in cul-de-sacs, so we have two school buses that ply the neighbor hood, one travel west picking up the North side kids and one traveling east pickin up the south side kids. Both busses are the really large one, rated at 48-adults (two per seat) or 72 kids (three per seat) and if only one bus picked up all the kids, it would not be half full.
One of the busses…
Another issue I have is the drivers cannot leave immediately if no child is present. They have to wait like one minute for late arrivals. And some of these “helicopter parents” will not let their child out until the bus arrives…
When I was going to school and I was late for the bus, it would only wait, it you were running towards it…
This is the bus parking lot at just one of our three high schools, they have bus lots too…
Ahh, my mistake.
Thanks for sharing. Very informative and interesting.
I’m not a born USA citizen but I’ve been a neutralized citizen for about 25 or more years.
I’m originally from Island Jamaica and our roads are extremely dangerous to drive on. Below is an example of our roads:
While Jamaica has school bus system, I have never seen one where I’m originally from ( the west ) — kids and adult passengers all ride on the same bus.
And we dont hear of children being killed by Motorists when exiting a bus. We just don’t ever hear about these things, despite our roads are dangerously designed.
I, as a disabled man, find it incredibly easy to drive in the USA compared to my former country. In fact, at my age now, I don’t think I will ever again drive in Jamaica.
So, to hear that opposite direction traffic has to stop for school buses in a beautifully designed country like the United States because children are being reported killed by motorists baffles me.
I see children as young as 6 years old walking on the street to school in Jamaica:
Students exiting/entering a stopped school bus may also be crossing the street immediately in front or behind the bus. The bus blocks the view of the motorists, so a stopped school bus creates a potentially dangerous situation. Compounded by kids not paying attention, they could get run over in the process. If there’s no way for a pedestrian to cross the street at that location, less chance they’ll do that, so the law in that situation may require drivers going the same direction to stop, but still allow for drivers to continue w/o stopping in the other direction. Thanks for the photos, interesting! The most concerning thing I notice in that photo is the large palm frond appearing to be laying across the street wires in the top photo.
In preparing your side of the story, you might want to take advantage of some photos from Google Street View.
+1
And, while these incidents aren’t common, they do happen:
When a child exits a bus in Jamaica, an adult accompanies and guides the child safely to where he/she is going.
Vehicles on the same side of the bus must stop for the bus. But there is no law requiring opposite traffic to stop.
Yes, I understand why the united states make it a law to stop for school buses. I’m in favor of this law. We all want our kids to be safe.
But it’s a stretch to require the opposite traffic, except residential traffic, to stop. I see it as more of a problem.
