INDIANAPOLIS — Students are heading back to school in Indiana, which means drivers will again be sharing the road with school buses.
Drivers are required by law to stop when a school bus stops to pick up or drop off children with its flashing red lights and stop arm activated. This goes for drivers in both directions of a road when a bus stops, unless the bus is stopped on a highway with a barrier or unpaved median. In that case, only the traffic traveling in the same direction as the bus is required to stop.
"Most of the time, you will always stop. The only exception is a divided roadway with an un-drivable median," the Greenfield Police Department wrote in a recent Facebook post. "Let's all do our part to keep our children safe this school year."
Police say it's not just a matter of drivers knowing the law, but being aware of their surroundings when school buses are on the road.
“Our two biggest concerns this time of year are drivers not paying attention to the road and speeding,” Hamilton County Sheriff Dennis Quakenbush before last school year. “Most of the stop-arm violations we encounter stem from those actions. Help us keep kids safe by slowing down, putting away the distractions and stopping for buses.”
Drivers can face heavy fines and even jail time for disregarding a school bus stop arm. Violators can be fined $10,000 and have their license suspended for up to 90 days for their first offense and up to a year for a second offense.
If the act of disregarding a stop arm results in injury, the offending driver can be charged with a felony and face six months to 2 1/2 years in jail. If someone is killed, the sentence is between one and six years in jail.