School Bus Laws in Illinois

We found that these crimes most often occur at the beginning of the school year, when many police services step up law enforcement to educate and remind the public of the law. At this time of year, it is not uncommon to see police vehicles passing near school buses to observe violations. Of course, these posts are also written for the rest of the year. School bus drivers can also report the license plates of illegally handing over drivers to police. According to the Illinois State Board of Education, children are at greatest risk of injury or death when boarding and disembarking the school bus. Most children who die in school bus accidents are between the ages of five and seven and are hit by cars travelling around a stopped bus. These ten feet, which surround the bus on all sides, are called the “danger zone”. In October 2018, three children were killed and another injured in Rochester, Indiana, after a driver failed to stop at a flashing red light on a school bus as the children crossed the border. In December, a tractor-trailer traveling in the wrong direction on I-74 crashed head-on into a school bus returning to Bloomington, killing two people. For example, 22 states have now passed stop camera laws to catch motorists passing school buses when they are stopped to pick up or drop off children. These include Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Over a one-week period in 2018, five children were killed and six injured in five separate incidents involving drivers passing stopped school buses. Three Indiana siblings were killed — 6-year-old twins and their 9-year-old half-sister — and another student was injured on Oct. 29, 2018, while waiting for their school bus, which authorities said had extended its stop arm and the lights were flashing. Traffic may resume when the bus resumes, or the school bus driver may ask drivers to continue. California doesn`t have a stop camera law, but takes a unique approach with a law in place since 1932 that requires school bus drivers to walk with K-eight students if they have to cross a street, according to School Transportation News. The driver should verbally tell students when it is safe to cross, rather than using hand signals that could be mistaken for a motorist`s signal. The law also requires the driver to stop the bus and remove the keys. Quotes for passing a stopped school bus can also affect drivers` insurance premiums or result in a licence suspension for those who have already committed traffic violations on their records. Overtaking a school bus during loading and unloading may result in mandatory driver`s licence withdrawal. Illinois law does not allow for a judicial oversight sanction for passing a school bus during loading and unloading.

Therefore, if a driver pleads guilty, the judge must find guilty of the crime. The Illinois Secretary of State automatically suspends the driver`s license of anyone convicted of violating this law for a period of three months. It doesn`t matter if a driver is on school property or on a public highway – these laws must be followed. In light of recent tragedies, Illinois is considering tougher penalties for motorists who violate the following laws: My daughters went back to school on Monday, and over the past three days of pickup, I`ve seen one alarming thing repeatedly; People passing by a school bus with a stop sign displayed. We entrust our children almost daily to a team of educators, administrators and other school district professionals. If something goes wrong and your child gets hurt while in someone else`s care, that person should be held responsible for the costs. School is back for many of Rockford`s school districts, so it`s the perfect time to refresh Illinois` school bus laws. Motorists in all 50 states must stop completely when the bus stop arm is deployed. Not quite half of them allow stop arm cameras, which can help investigators piece together what happened after crashes or prosecute motorists who violate school bus safety laws. There are other differences in state law. Vehicles going in the same direction as the school bus must always stop.

Vehicles travelling on a two-lane carriageway in the opposite direction to the school bus must also stop. However, Illinois law does not require a driver to stop on a four-lane highway when driving on the two opposite lanes of the school bus. In Illinois, all lanes must stop in both directions when a school bus is stopped to pick up or drop off children on a two-lane road. This also applies to one-way streets, regardless of the number of traffic lanes. I admit that this particular situation of a school bus is a little difficult because it is a bus whose stop sign awaits the students who are released a few minutes before the arrival of the rest of the school buses. Honestly, I`m also guilty of passing this particular bus in the past simply because I didn`t know what to do in this slightly gray area of school bus laws if the students aren`t there yet.