By By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Editor
With the beginning of school Tuesday, those big, yellow school buses will be back on area roads.
North Carolina’s Highway Patrol, in a concentrated effort to protect those buses and the students who ride them, will be on those same roads, according to 1st Sgt. Kenneth Pitts with the Highway Patrol’s office in Washington.
When it comes to safety involving school buses and their passengers, the Highway Patrol is going to make sure they are as safe as possible, Pitts said. That includes issuing citations for motorists who pass stopped school buses when the law forbids it.
“Absolutely,” replied Pitts when asked during a brief interview if this is one traffic-law violation for which troopers will always write a citation instead of issuing a warning.
The Highway Patrol is particularly observant for motorists passing stopped school buses during the first days and weeks of a new school year, Pitts said, but such violations happen throughout the school year.
“We have some all along during the school year,” Pitts said.
Be sure about it, the Highway Patrol will “beef up road patrols” during the opening days of the new school year, Pitts said.
The following laws about passing stopped school buses apply to school buses operated by public schools and private schools:
• On a two-lane road: When a school bus stops for passengers, all traffic from both directions must stop.
• On a two-lane road with a center turning lane: When a school bus stops for passengers all traffic from both directions must stop.
• On a four-lane road without a median separation: When a school bus stops for passengers, all traffic from both directions must stop.
In Washington, 15th Street east of U.S. Highway 17 is an example of a four-lane road without a median separation. When a school bus stops on that section of 15th Street, traffic from both directions must stop.
• On a divided highway of four lanes or more with a median separation: When a school bus stops, only traffic following the bus must stop.
• On a roadway of four lanes or more with a center turn lane: When a school bus stops for passengers, only traffic following the bus must stop.
“We have more school bus violations occur on 15th Street than any other road in the county. Also, I see near collisions on U.S. 264 when people stop when they are not required to do so,” Pitts said in a news release.
The N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety and other state agencies say the passing of stopped school buses is dangerous. On Wednesday, a 6-year-old North Carolina girl was killed when an 83-year-old motorist struck her as she was walking away from a school bus from which she has just disembarked.
During a one-day count of illegal passings of stopped school buses on March 12, 2008, there were 22 violations in Beaufort County, according to figures provided by the state. Twelve of those violations occurred during the morning, with 10 occurring in the afternoon. There were 101 buses on the county’s roads that day.
A total of 22 students were at the stops where the counts took place. Of the 22 violations in Beaufort County, 12 violations occurred when vehicles passed stopped school buses from their fronts and 10 occurred when stopped school buses were passed from their rears. All 22 illegal passes were made on the left side of the buses.
Of the 22 violations, 16 were made by cars and six by vans or pickup trucks. Twelve of the violations occurred on four-lane highways without center turn lanes, seven occurred on two-lane roads, one took place on a two-lane road with a turn lane, one occurred on a four-lane highway with a center turn lane and one occurred on a road with more than four lanes and a median.
Across the state that day, 2,325 violations were observed.
Anyone convicted of illegally passing a stopped school bus faces a fine, possible jail time and an attachment of five points to his or her driver’s license.
Attempts to determine the number of children killed by motorists passing stopped school buses in North Carolina during the past 10 years were unsuccessful Friday.