Public Defense

Stopping for school buses, or: yet another needless post

By Gideon

To stop or not to stop?

On my way to work yesterday, I observed a curious (and at the time a very frustrating) event. The road was a four lane city road (maybe if I call it an avenue it paints a clearer picture). There was a 2-3 foot long grassy median separating the two opposing sides of traffic, with two lanes in each direction.

There was a school bus, with its stop sign pulled out and its lights flashing on the other side of the road. And there, on my side, were about 15 cars. Stopping for the school bus on the other side of the road at 7:45am, when all the kids were obviously getting on to the bus.

So, as is my wont, I wondered out loud: “What the f is wrong with these people Must we stop for a school bus on the other side of the road?” I decided to don my deerstalker and do a little investigatin’.

Turns out there is a statute addressing this. Connecticut General Statutes Section 14-279 states:

(a) The operator of any [...] motor vehicle [...] shall immediately bring such vehicle to a stop not less than ten feet from the front when approaching and not less than ten feet from the rear when overtaking or following any registered school bus on any highway or private road or in any parking area or on any school property when such bus is displaying flashing red signal lights, except at the specific direction of a traffic officer…The operator of a vehicle upon a highway with separate roadways need not stop upon meeting or passing a school bus which is on a different roadway.

So the question, then, is whether a city “avenue” is a “highway”.

The answer is this:

(37) “Highway” includes any state or other public highway, road, street, avenue, alley, driveway, parkway or place, under the control of the state or any political subdivision of the state, dedicated, appropriated or opened to public travel or other use

It makes sense that you don’t have to stop. What’s the purpose of this statute? The annotations provide some guidance:

Evidences a legislative intent to create a safety zone within which school children can safely cross a street after alighting from a school bus. 180 Conn. 302.

Given that school buses will stop on both sides of any such road where there is a median, there was absolutely no risk that a child would be permitted to alight and attempt to cross such an avenue where there is heavy traffic. Obviously, no child would have been doing that yesterday morning, because it was morning and they were going to school.

So there we go. I was delayed for work by a bunch of idiots people who were not aware of this statute and hopefully now someone will let them now. Hopefully now you know and you don’t stop.

Obviously, I’m not advocating driving dangerously and if you are on a two-lane road with no median or on the same side as the bus, then you damn well better stop. But, if you’re, like on a highway with separate roadways, um, do the rest of us a favor.

Full post as published by A Public Defender on November 01, 2008 (boomark / email).