LPOSD puts focus on bus stop safety

SANDPOINT — School starts Tuesday and buses will be running nearly 3,000 miles per day, transporting nearly 3,000 students in the Lake Pend Oreille School District.

There are 36 bus routes with the earliest beginning around 5:30 a.m. and the last one back to the garage by about 5 p.m. With the amount of student transported during that time over so many miles, LPOSD Director of Transportation James Koehler said it is important for Bonner County drivers to know what the lights on the buses mean.

"I think it will be really helpful for the public to really understand what those lights are doing," Koehler said.

The bus drivers turn on the yellow flashing lights, located toward the top of the bus, 200 feet before their scheduled stop to warn drivers behind and in front of them that they will be stopping to load students. When the door to the bus opens, the overhead red flashers turn on and the stop arm extends. It is unlawful to pass a school bus with red flashers and stop arms activated. Anytime the yellow lights at the top of the bus flash, they are a prelude to the red flashing lights and the stop arm.

Koehler said passing a school bus with a stop arm extended is "extremely" dangerous to the students who are loading or unloading and stressful to the bus driver who's number one concern is the safety of the student.

Bus drivers in the district reported 24 stop arm violations last year, Koehler said, up from 19 the previous year.

He said most of the time the bus driver is required to stop in the center of the lane to drop students off and pick them up, but the students do not always live on the right side of the road where the bus is stopped, so the students have to cross the street.

"If the stop arm is out and the bus driver is crossing them over the road and somebody passes that school bus, they are going to hit that student, or there is a potential for it," Koehler said.

He said the school district has been lucky because no students have been hit by cars in the area.

The amber four-way hazard lights, which are located below the windows of the bus, are used at stops where the bus will be off of the roadway, so stopping traffic with a stop arm is not required for student safety.

If the bus stops at a stop with only four-way hazards activated it is OK to pass the bus, but proceed with caution.

Also, school buses are required to stop at all railroad crossings and it is unlawful to pass the bus while it is stopped at a crossing.

Koehler said bus drivers understand it can be frustrating to drive behind a school bus that is repeatedly stopping. He said they try to allow traffic to pass them when conditions are safe to do so.