A reminder of school traffic laws

As Houston County heads back to school this week, there are important things to remember while driving out on the roads, it’s imperative to be aware of your surroundings when driving through school zones and around school buses. Children walking in school zones and getting in and out of buses on bus routes should be a driver’s priority and alert mechanism while driving.

Captain Billy Boney with the Centerville Police Department listed good driving practices for everyone to follow as the school year starts. Boney pointed out the importance of traffic laws in regards to driving behind and around school buses on the roads.

“I think that the most important traffic laws that we need to talk about as far as schools are concerned is school buses,” said Boney. There’s lots and lots of kids that are hit by cars or injured or even fatalities by stepping off buses and somebody running over them because they’re not obeying the lights on the side of the bus or the back of the bus, or the front of the bus. There’s lights all over the bus.”

There are a couple of important exceptions or rules of thumb to keep in mind in regards to situations involving traffic and the presence of a stopped school bus.

“If it’s on a road that’s got a turn lane in it, then both sides have got to stop, even on a four lane [The] only exception of that is if there’s a barrier in between it like a wall or something of that nature,” Boney stated.

Boney said it is important to be aware and cognizant of kids getting on and off the bus. Although there may be a wall or median in the middle of a roadway, drivers coming from both directions should be mindful that children could run out into the roadway without warning. “The last thing someone wants to do is run over a child, I’m sure,” said Boney.

“The second thing is speeding in the school zones. Most school zones are posted as to what the speed limit is and the times that you’re to obey those numbers. The judges take it really, really seriously if you get a citation of speeding in a school zone. A lot of times they add extra fine on there because of the school zone,” Boney stated.

According to the Houston County State Court, fines for speeding in Houston County are doubled when speeding in a school zone. Fines may vary in individual cities. In a situation involving a driver passing a stopped school bus, fines start at $300.

Boney noted law enforcement officers actually don’t want to write tickets, but the very last thing they want to do is call the coroner because driving laws were disobeyed.

“Our main goal is not to write tickets and it’s not what we want to do. That’s the next to the last thing we want to do. The last thing we want to do is to have to call the coroner out for a child that’s been run over because somebody wasn’t obeying the speed law,” he said.

Due to the routes of school buses, it often takes a couple of hours to complete these routes. Drivers should also be mindful of this when driving after school hours.

“So we’ve still got kids that at four or five o’clock sometimes, they are getting off a bus and we have just got to pay attention and stop for them,” said Boney.

When driving through school zones, behind and around school buses, and even through neighborhoods, Boney noted that it is always most important to be mindful of children in any situation. Even during non-school hours, maintaining good driving practices will potentially save a life.

“It’s just a no brainer that you see a school light blinking that you put off the gas and slow down. Because no matter how big a hurry you’re in, it’s not worth a child’s life,” Boney stated.