Quote Quoting jk
View Post
to prohibit a bus driver from stopping their bus in such a location as it would increase the possibility of an accident. It is a directive to the driver of the bus. It does not provide a defense to the driver of the vehicle that passed the bus.


Look at it this way;

even if you could not see the bus until you started to pass it, as long as those lights are on and sign out, you cannot complete the pass. While it might allow a judge to be sympathetic and reduce the penalty, it does not excuse the violation itself.
I wonder. Two 2012 studies, one commissioned by the State of Iowa and another by the NHTSA noted that an exceptional number of people pass school buses--so exceptional that it's puzzling. After all, most people truly care about children. Both studies explored possible reasons and concluded that one reason may be that they're not able to see the bus and stop in time.

Most states specify where a school bus can stop. Iowa says there has to be 300 feet of unobstructed visibility. Some states make it 500.

If a driver, especially an inexperienced driver, doesn't have ample time to see a bus and process the need to stop, especially when there's a law requiring the bus driver to give her ample time to see the bus and process the need to stop, how should our system of justice react?

Oh, and let's not forget that she didn't see any lights or sign--perhaps because they weren't activated, perhaps because she didn't have enough time to process what she saw.