When Do You Stop For A School Bus? Know The Law In Pennsylvania

PENNSYLVANIA — As Pennsylvania schools are preparing to welcome students back to the classroom, motorists may be a bit rusty about what to do when they encounter a stopped school bus.

Every year, more than 25 million elementary through high school students get to and from school on buses, which travel about 5.7 billion miles in a single school year, according to the American School Bus Council.

When they ride the bus, they’re about 70 times more likely to arrive at school alive than those students who get to school by other means, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

There are dangers, though — notably when children get on and off the bus. When children are injured or killed, it usually happens when the school bus is stopped, the lights are flashing and the stop arm is extended, according to safety experts.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia require motorists to come to a complete stop any time they encounter a bus with its lights flashing and stop arm extended.

In Pennsylvania, the law requires drivers to stop at least 10 feet away from school buses that have their red lights flashing and stop arm extended. Drivers must stop if they are behind the bus, approaching the bus, or at an intersection where a bus is stopped.

Those following or driving alongside the school bus must also stop until the red lights stop flashing, the stop arm is withdrawn, and all children have reached safety.

According to the state Department of Transportation, drivers in the opposing lanes may proceed without stopping only if there are physical barriers such as grassy medians, guide rails or concrete median barriers separate oncoming traffic from the bus. If there is only a turn lane separating oncoming traffic and the bus, all drivers on both sides of the road must stop.

Those who violate the law are subject to a $250 fine, a 60-day license suspension, and the addition of five points on their driving record. More than 700 drivers are convicted each year for passing a stopped school bus with its red lights flashing, said PennDOT.

Despite laws, transportation officials estimate that about 42 million times every year, motorists pull around the legally stopped school buses, risking the lives of children as they get on and off. An average of six students a year died while attempting to board or get off their school buses from 2012 to 2021, according to the most recent National School Bus Loading and Unloading Survey.

The report from the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services didn’t discuss injuries and near misses, but safety experts say those numbers are much higher than the count of children who are killed.

While all states require a complete stop when the stop arm is extended, there are nuances. Most require other motorists to stop regardless of their direction, unless there’s a median separating lanes of traffic. And about half of states allow local governments or school districts to use cameras to capture images and issue tickets for drivers illegally passing stopped school buses, including Pennsylvania.

In a single day in 2017, more than 104,000 school bus drivers observed nearly 78,000 instances in which motorists illegally passed stopped school buses, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. At that rate, the tally for the entire school year would be around 14 million violations.

Another National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report found that from 2006-2015, 102 pedestrians under 18 were killed in school-transportation-related crashes.

Increasingly in recent years, state legislatures have adopted policies to improve bus safety. Along with the camera push, a requirement for seat belt use on school buses are keystone policies.

NHTSA data also shows that an average of six student passengers die a year in school bus crashes. The agency recommended in 2018 that states adopt legislation requiring passenger lap and shoulder belts on all new large school bus purchases.

Eight states have adopted policies requiring seat belts on new bus purchases (Pennsylvania is not one of them).