Unless you’ve recently taken your PA Driver License test, you may have forgotten the details of the PA school bus stopping laws. With 1.5 million children being transported on Pennsylvania’s roads each day and taken more than 400 million miles to school each year, we want to make sure our children are safe. Unfortunately every year children are needlessly injured or killed by drivers unlawfully passing stopped school buses.

• Remember: You must stop!
• When you meet or overtake a stopped school bus with red signal lights flashing and stop arm extended.
• When you approach an intersection whether it is or is not marked with a stop sign where a school bus is stopped with red signal lights flashing and stop arm extended
• At least 10 feet away from the school bus
• Until the red lights have stopped flashing and the stop arm has been withdrawn
• Both directions of traffic must stop on roadways with painted lines
• Both directions of traffic must stop on roadways with ridged/grooved dividers

There are some times when opposing traffic may proceed:

• If there is a physical barrier, traffic must stop in the same direction as the bus, the other side may proceed.
• If there is a clearly indicated dividing section, such as trees, boulders, grass, etc., traffic in the same direction as the bus must stop while traffic going in the opposite direction may proceed.

A great guideline is…..if in doubt. STOP!
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Motor Vehicles, if convicted of a School Bus Stopping violation, you could receive all of the following:

• 60 day Driver’s License Suspension
• Five point on your driving record
• $250 fine
• More importantly, the safety of all of Pennsylvania’s school children is in your hands. One injury or death is one too many.