Our back-to-school September Safety Series is a three-part series focusing on safety around school zones and neighborhood areas where children are present.
Fall is a great time to remind motorists about sharing the road safely with school buses, bicyclists, and child pedestrians. Let’s start with a few helpful tips to keep in mind when sharing the road with a school bus:
- The school bus is one of the safest vehicles on the road. Less than 1% of all traffic fatalities involve children on school transportation vehicles. However, children are more at risk when approaching or leaving a school bus. The school bus loading and unloading area is the most dangerous for students.
- It is illegal to pass a school bus that is stopped to load or unload children.
- All buses use yellow flashing lights to alert motorists they are about to load or unload children.
- Red lights and an extended stop sign arm signals that the bus is stopped and children are getting on or off. Stop at least 20 feet away, in both directions, from a bus when red warning lights are flashing. (The only exception is if you are traveling on the other side of a divided highway.)
- Do not pass a school bus on the right while it is stopped. Doing so is illegal and could have tragic consequences.
- Keep your distance. Children are most likely to be hit or injured in the area 10 feet around a school bus.
In Wisconsin, when passed illegally, bus drivers are authorized to report violations to law enforcement. In 2024, there were 1,276 traffic convictions for failure to stop for a school bus.