TZD Tuesday: School Bus Safety Week

School Bus Safety Week highlights a critical reality – our kids are most vulnerable not while riding the bus, but while boarding and exiting it. Most school-bus-related fatalities occur outside the vehicle, often when motorists fail to stop for flashing red lights and extended stop-arms. These tragedies are entirely preventable. The law is simple: flashing red lights mean stop.

Understanding Flashing Lights on a Bus

• Yellow flashing lights: The bus is preparing to stop. Motorists should slow down and prepare to come to a complete stop.
• Red flashing lights: The bus is loading or unloading children. Drivers traveling in both directions must come to a complete stop, regardless of whether the stop arm has been extended.
• Resuming travel: Drivers may only proceed once the red lights are turned off, the stop-arm is retracted, and the bus begins moving again.

Minnesota School Bus Laws and Penalties

• Stopping distance: Under Minnesota law, drivers must stop at least 20 feet away from a stopped school bus as soon as the red lights begin flashing, whether the physical stop-arm is fully extended yet or not.
• Divided highways: On a physically divided highway (a road separated by a median, concrete barrier or island), only vehicles traveling in the same direction as the bus are required to stop. On all other roads, including undivided multi-lane roads, traffic in both directions must stop.
• Strict penalties: Illegally passing a school bus in Minnesota carries a minimum fine of $500. Drivers can face criminal charges for passing a school bus on the right, passing when a child is outside the bus, or injuring or killing a child. 

Respect the "Danger Zone"

The area immediately surrounding a school bus is a critical hazard area for children. This is where a child may not be seen by the bus driver and, therefore, is in the most danger. These areas include:

• 10 feet in front: The bus driver sits high up and may not see small children walking directly in front.
• 10 feet on the sides: Blind spots prevent bus drivers from seeing children walking along the side.
• Behind the bus: The rear area offers zero direct visibility for the bus driver.

By staying alert, slowing down and obeying bus laws in school zones and neighborhoods, we can all work together to protect our youngest pedestrians. Please share these reminders with family, friends and neighbors so everyone makes it home safely. Together, we can drive Minnesota toward zero deaths.