With a new school year approaching, motorists are reminded to be vigilant of school children and school buses. Here are some important safety tips when sharing the road with school buses:
- It is illegal to pass a school bus that is stopped to load or unload children.
- School buses use yellow flashing lights to alert motorists that they are preparing to stop to load or unload children. Red flashing lights and an extended stop sign arm signals to motorists that the bus is stopped and children are getting on or off the bus.
- Pennsylvania law requires that traffic in both directions stop on undivided roadways when students are entering or exiting a school bus.
- Traffic behind the school bus (traveling in the same direction) must stop.
- The area 10 feet around a school bus is where children are in the most danger of being hit.
- Stop your car far enough from the bus to allow children the necessary space to safely enter and exit the bus.
- Be alert. Children walking to or from their bus are usually very comfortable with their surroundings. This makes them more likely to take risks, ignore hazards or fail to look both ways when crossing the street.
3345. Meeting or overtaking school bus.
(a) DUTY OF APPROACHING DRIVER WHEN RED SIGNALS ARE FLASHING.-Except as provided in subsection (g), the driver of a vehicle meeting or overtaking any school bus stopped on a highway or trafficway shall stop at least ten feet before reaching the school bus when the red signal lights on the school bus are flashing and the side stop signal arms are activated under section 4552(b.1) (relating to general requirements for school buses). The driver shall not proceed until the flashing red signal lights are no longer actuated. In no event shall a driver of a vehicle resume motion of the vehicle until the school children who may have alighted from the school bus have reached a place of safety. The driver of a vehicle approaching an intersection at which a school bus is stopped shall stop his vehicle at that intersection until the flashing red signal lights are no longer actuated.
(g) EXCEPTIONS FROM STOPPING REQUIREMENTS.-The driver of a vehicle upon a highway or trafficway with separate roadways need not stop upon meeting or passing a school bus with actuated red signal lights which is on a different roadway.
Be mindful of the 800 block of Paoli Pike for school bus stops. While it may be confusing because of the many lanes, all lanes of travel must stop when there is no median present.