illegal passing of stopped school buses

Study Shows Illegal Passing of Stopped School Buses a Serious Problem in Florida: Need for Improved Information, Enforcement Policies Recommended

Parents in Florida have long fretted that publicly-operated school buses without seatbelts make traveling to and from school dangerous for everyone onboard the buses. However, a study recently completed by the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) for the Florida Department of Education (DOE) shows that a potentially greater danger to public school children is private motorists who do not stop for stopped school buses. In winter 1994, two children were fatally injured when struck by private motorists who ran the stop arms and red flashing lights of two public school buses while the school buses were properly stopped at school bus stops. According to data compiled by DOE, nine children in Florida have been killed and numerous others have been injured in loading and unloading zone accidents involving publicly-operated school buses during the past five years.

Typical School Day Survey

At the request of the Florida Department of Education (FDOE), CUTR asked all 67 school districts in Florida to participate in a one-day survey of illegal passing. School bus drivers collected information about each illegal pass, including:

• time of occurrence
• number of students at the school bus stop
• type of locale (urban or rural)
• direction of the passing vehicle (same or opposite direction of the school bus)
• side of bus passed by vehicle (left or right)
• type of passing vehicle (car or light or heavy truck)
• type of roadway on which pass occurred
• type of roadway surface (paved or unpaved)
• operation status of white roof mounted strobe light at time of pass (on or off)

Data were collected from 58 Florida school districts, representing approximately 11,150 school buses.

Survey Analysis Results

Analysis revealed that 10,590 vehicles were recorded illegally passing 3,427 stopped school buses during a typical school day by school bus drivers while driving their regular route(s). Perhaps the most surprising finding obtained from the recorded data was the number of private motorists that illegally passed stopped school buses on the loading/unloading side: nearly four percent (415) of the recorded illegal passes occurred on the door side of the stopped school buses. Other survey analysis results include:

• The majority of passes occurred when the vehicle in violation was traveling in the opposite direction of the stopped school buses.
• No trend exists in the time of day in which passes occurred.
• The majority of passes occurred on two-lane roadways.
• The majority of vehicles that passed were passenger cars.
• The majority of passes occurred at school bus stops where one to five students were boarding or alighting.
• The majority of school buses passed had their white roof mounted strobe light(s) activated.
• To present the magnitude of the problem in some areas of the state, Table 1 contains information pertaining to the 10 school districts with the most severe illegal pass problems.

Focus Group Results and Recommendations

In addition to the survey, focus group sessions were held in three school districts (Polk, Hardee, and Seminole) to obtain the opinions of school bus drivers, parents, law enforcement officers, school district transportation staff, and other local persons regarding the possible causes of and countermeasures to the problem of illegal passes in Florida.

Results from the focus groups suggest that the high incidence of illegal passes in Florida is primarily the result of three items:

• low enforcement of Section 316.172 of the Florida Statutes (the School Bus Stop Law)
• lack of knowledge regarding school bus signalizations
• lack of knowledge of the requirements for traffic to stop on certain roadway types

School bus drivers in rural areas also attributed the high incidence of illegal passes to heavy agricultural or other commercial trucks.The fact that approximately one out of every three school buses in operation during the single day of illegal pass data collection was passed by a private motorist adds up to nearly 1.9 million illegal passes occurring in a typical school year in Florida.

Yet, law enforcement agencies throughout the state issued a yearly average of only about 2,700 citations for illegally passing stopped school buses during the past five years. Part of the reason for the low citation rate is the fact that state law requires law enforcement officers to actually witness an illegal pass before a citation can be issued to the violator.

Recommendations

Clearly, the existing law pertaining to the illegal passing of stopped school buses should be amended to better reflect the current driving environment in Florida. Since 1969, the driving environment in Florida has changed dramatically—the addition of four-lane roadways with center two-way left turn lanes, an increase in traffic densities on certain roadway types, and an increase in the number of registered vehicles statewide.

Revisions to the statute should include empowering school bus drivers or certain other witnesses (for example, crossing guards, school bus attendants, or private motorists) to provide evidence sufficient for issuance of a citation or warning to registered vehicle owners, and providing for fines, points assessed against the driver s license, jail time, or community service hours for convicted violators. Providing for criminal charges in lieu of increased traffic fines should also be considered. Information gathered during the study indicates that 24 of the 50 states provide specific language in their statutes that empowers school bus drivers or other certain witnesses to report school bus stop law violators.

In addition to the above recommended revisions, several other recommended countermeasures should be considered. At the state level, the Florida Commissioner of Education, the Florida Legislature, and other relevant groups representing law enforcement, planning, and local school districts should work cooperatively to develop and implement practical and effective countermeasures to this problem, including:

• promotion of the awareness and need for targeted enforcement of the school bus stop law among the statewide law enforcement community,
• development and dissemination of high impact PSAs for television, radio, and newspaper markets to educate private motorists about the school bus stop law and graphically remind them of the potential consequences of violating this law,
• development and dissemination of materials by other means, including information in automobile license tag renewal notices, rental car contract signoffs, and on billboards,
• clarification of the section in the Florida Driver s Handbook that pertains to the school bus stop law,
• provision of highway signage in school bus loading and unloading zones advising traffic of the law pertaining to stopping for stopped school buses and that school buses make frequent stops in the area,
• research on the advisability of changes to School Bus Specifications by the State Board of Education or pilot testing to include higher visibility stop signal arms, lettering on rear of school buses advising motorists of stop law, or other safety items that may be proposed such as video cameras mounted on school buses to record the vehicle(s) that illegally pass,
• analysis of the Basic School Bus Driver Curriculum and development of necessary changes to standardize in more detail the school bus stop warning procedure, and
• identification of the best practices and development of recommendations for school districts regarding the establishment of safe school bus routes and stops.

At the local level, attempts should be made to encourage the formation of and the participation on existing Community Traffic Safety Program (CTSP) committees. Participation on these committees should include school district transportation staff and other school board representatives, local law enforcement, city and county traffic engineers, local planners, AAA, and parent-teacher organizations.

These committees should work cooperatively to develop and implement practical and effective countermeasures to this problem at the local level, including:

• implementation of school bus stop law enforcement blitzes,
• development of recommended criteria for school bus stop location,
• dissemination of materials regarding school bus stop law via training courses, displays at local community events, mass mailings in utility and cable bills and other mailouts, pedestrian and school bus rider education, and other media.

The importance of reducing or eliminating the potential of fatal and non-fatal injury to school children in the school bus loading and unloading zones should be of paramount importance in Florida and elsewhere. It should be stressed and made patently obvious to private motorists that every illegal pass of a stopped school bus is potentially life-threatening to students.

Finally, the magnitude of illegal passing of stopped school buses in Florida documented through this study represents a very serious problem that must be addressed hrough the cooperation of various state and local agencies and groups through the coordinated formulation and implementation of various practical countermeasures. "We are committed to taking steps to ensure the safety of our children," said Florida Commissioner of Education Frank Brogan. "The chronic rate at which people pass stopped school buses is a sad example of misplaced priorities. Is it really worth endangering the life of a child to save sixty seconds?"

For further information on this study, contact CUTR Research Associate Michael Baltes, baltes@eng.usf.edu.