Growing up, I was lucky enough not to ride a bus to school that often.
I usually was dropped off by my mom and then picked up by my grandparents or walked home from the old McAllister Junior High campus.
It wasn’t until my high school years that I found myself on the bus every afternoon once school let out and occasionally in the mornings when I slept in too late.
Well, unless I had choir practice or was taking a driver’s education class that week after school.
Still, I can recall a few times when drivers blew past us on railroad crossings and during actual drop-offs with other students.
I was lucky enough to be the absolutely last stop on the route and my bus driver took up the entire middle of the road to stop and let me off.
Effectively, he made it extra safe for me to cross the street and get home.
Sometimes, he even waited for me to get inside the house before taking off back to the bus barn for the day.
Any given week, you can see comments and concerns from parents and some school employees about local drivers ignoring the flashing lights and extended stop sign arm on school buses.
Sadly, that example of reckless driving seems to have increased as school districts grew, along with the number of students and timing across campuses.
Texas law requires all drivers to come to complete stops any time a school bus uses its flashing red lights and extends its stop sign.
These are the basic visual signals that tell drivers that the bus is picking up or dropping off students.
If the bus is flashing its yellow lights, it means that the bus is getting ready to stop to load or unload students and means that drivers should reduce their speeds and be prepared to stop.
Drivers approaching the bus from either direction lawfully must stop and cannot pass until the bus has turned off its red flashing lights, withdrawn its stop sign, and continued driving.
Full stops by drivers are required for vehicles in all directions and across multi-lane roads or highways that are not separated by a physical barrier.
The fine for violating Texas’s school bus stop law can go up to $1,250 for the first offense and the offending driver could also face driver’s license suspension and even jail time for a second or subsequent offense or if the action causes a severe injury.
The hardest part about ticketing those violators is providing proof.
Even though we’ve heard accounts of concerned citizens providing vehicle license plate numbers to police and sheriff personnel – it feels ineffective when there doesn’t appear to be any follow-through.
Plus, each school district has its own police department and limitations on the area that counts in their jurisdictions.
Don’t forget that almost all school bus security cameras point inside the bus to keep students safe.
I’ve yet to see any on the outside covering all angles of the vehicle, but maybe things are changing as buses get upgraded over the years.
Either way, I don’t see this problem going away overnight or on its own.
It’ll require something tragic to happen or for concerned people to get more involved.
