Monday, April 05, 1999
COMMUTING COLUMN
Know when to stop for a school bus
BY TANYA ALBERT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
You're driving down a four-lane stretch of Colerain Avenue or Montgomery Road and there's a school bus headed in the opposite direction.
The red flashing lights burst into action and the “Stop” sign arm snaps down.
What's the commuter supposed to do?
The coffee hasn't quite kicked in yet. Drivers rack their brains for the answer.
“I know there's something different about four-lane streets, but what is it? Do parked cars on the side of the road factor in?” drivers think to themselves. “Better stop.”
For those of us who haven't taken driver's ed in a while and have played that scenario through our heads, here's a refresher course on the rules of the road:
• Any time a driver in Ohio, Kentucky or Indiana is headed in the same direction behind a school bus and the bus' red lights start flashing, the driver must stop behind the bus.
• On any Ohio, Kentucky or Indiana roadway with fewer than four marked lanes, vehicles headed toward the bus with red lights flashing must stop, too.
There's only one instance in Ohio and Kentucky when traffic doesn't have to stop for a school bus: If the car is headed in the opposite direction of the school bus on a street with four or more marked lanes.
If the four lanes are marked, but cars are parked in one of the marked lanes, it is OK to pass if a driver is headed in the opposite direction, police say.
The lanes can be divided by painted lines or a barrier.
In Indiana, though, the law is a little more restrictive.
Only drivers on a road with four or more lanes divided by a physical barrier can keep going if a bus is stopped on the other side of the highway, Indiana State Police Lt. Steven Hillman says.
Now, here's something about the law commuters may not know: If a driver passes a school bus when he shouldn't, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana bus drivers can write down the license plate number and a description of the car and send it to the police.
“We have a form the (bus) driver fills out, and we mail it to the Cincinnati police,” says Dennis Riggs, president of Riggs Bus Co., which runs 240 routes for Cincinnati Public Schools. “We send in four or five a month.”
They see violators more often than that, but can't always get the license plate number and make and model of the car for police to follow up. “It happens every day,” Mr. Riggs says.
Bus drivers have sent Cincinnati police 49 complaints so far this year.
The police sent the drivers letters telling them where they were spotted and how dangerous their driving was.
So far, Cincinnati hasn't seen any repeat offenders, said Nick Guerrera, who follows up on the complaints for police. If he does, though, Ohio law would let him cite the driver.
No one who has received a letter has ever called and said he or she didn't understand the law about school buses stopping, Mr. Guerrera says.
“It's frustrating that they disregard the signals,” he said. “People should take their time. They're only going to save, maybe, 10 seconds. It's really not worth it to hurt a child.”
Tanya Albert's Commuting column appears each Monday. Contact her at tmalbert@enquirer.com.
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