GTPD: Share Roads with School Buses

With Gloucester Township and Black Horse Pike Regional schools opening on Thursday, Gloucester Township Police issued the following statement regarding school buses:

School buses are one of the safest forms of transportation on the road today. In fact, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, riding a bus to school is 13 times safer than riding in a passenger vehicle and 10 times safer than walking to school. The reality of school bus safety is that more children are hurt outside the bus than inside as passengers. Most of the children who lose their lives in bus-related crashes are pedestrians, 4 to 7 years old, who are hit by the bus or by motorists illegally passing a stopped school bus. For this reason, it is necessary to know the proper laws and procedures for sharing the road safely with school buses:

• All 50 states have a law making it 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.
• All 50 states require that traffic in both directions stop on undivided roadways when students are entering or exiting a school bus.
• On divided highways or roadways, which are defined as highways or roadways that have a physical barrier or safety island that separates lanes of travel, vehicles that are approaching a stopped school bus that is displaying red flashing lights and discharging or taking on students must slow to 10 miles per hour and can only resume normal speed until they pass the school bus and any children that may be entering or exiting the school bus.
• 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 are unpredictable. 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.