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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
March 19, 2024

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What’s Up With That? Watch for stopping school buses, then check the type of road

By , Columbian staff writer
Published:

Now that schools are back in session, I’d love to have a refresher on when I need to stop for school buses. Frequently I travel on Northeast 112th Avenue, which has two lanes in each direction and a center turn lane. If I’m travelling in the same direction as the bus, I stop, whether I’m directly behind the bus or not. When I’m traveling in the opposite direction of the bus, I don’t think I need to stop, but many people do. Any guidance on the rules for that type of street in particular, and other streets generally, would be much appreciated.

— Donna Aase, Fircrest Neighborhood

Congratulations, Donna, you are on the right track. If the road is a big one — with three or more lanes or with a substantial median separating the directions of traffic — you needn’t stop if you are going the opposite way from the bus.

Your confusion is understandable, though. If you’re a responsible driver, you’ve probably absorbed what seems like an ironclad law of driving life: When a school bus stops, you stop. That’s what all those other drivers are doing, and their caution is laudable. (We tend not to hear much about drivers being too careful, do we?) But it turns out that laws in many states — including Washington — aren’t quite that simple.

The Washington law governing this matter is RCW 46.61.370, and the handiest way to take a look at it is via the Washington Traffic Safety Commission website, http://www.wtsc.wa.gov/traffic-laws. Here’s a summary of its first three sections, aimed at drivers sharing the road with school buses (and written in deeply lawyerly gobbledegook, so you’re welcome for the English translation).


• Two-lane roads:
Drivers going in either direction must stop before reaching a school bus that is stopped and displaying signs or signals indicating that it is collecting or discharging children.


• Divided:
If the roadway is physically divided by a median island or barrier at least 18 inches wide, drivers on the opposite side from a stopped school bus need not stop.


• Three-or-more-lane roads:
A driver on a road with three or more marked lanes doesn’t have to stop for a stopped bus headed the opposite way.

If you want some visual demonstration of all this, the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction has posted a four-minute video at http://youtu.be/moK9MZVSIQY; it shows and discusses correct driver behavior around school buses as well as dramatizing, in effectively terrifying fashion, what can happen when a driver tries to zoom past a stopped bus.

The video also drives home that bus drivers are considered automatically credible witnesses when reporting violators, and police have every right to hit you with a costly citation — no warnings, no breaks — based only on a bus driver’s report.

In other words, if you just kept going but the bus driver got your license plate number, you may think you got away, but you’re toast.

Fortunately, Donna, that doesn’t sound like a problem for you.


Got a question about your neighborhood? We’ll get it answered. Send “What’s Up With That?” questions to neighbors@columbian.com.

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