Back To School Bus Safety: When Ohio Drivers Need To

OHIO — The first days of school can be deadly in Ohio, and across the nation, as motorists re-familiarize themselves with laws requiring them to halt when the school bus stop arm is extended.

An average of seven school-age children die every year in school bus crashes, but nearly three times that number are killed waiting for or getting on or off the bus, according to School Transportation News.

Here’s what Ohio requires, according to School Training Solutions, an online training program for people who work for school districts across the country: When buses stop completely, and red lights are flashing, and the stop sign is extended, all traffic approaching the bus must stop at least 10 feet from the front or rear of the bus. If there are four or more lanes, some traffic going the opposite way may continue. If you stop for the bus, you must remain stopped until the bus begins to move or the bus driver signals for you to drive.

In addition to these laws, other states across the country have mostly focused on two policies, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures — allowing school districts to use bus cameras to help catch motorists illegally passing stopped school buses, and requiring seat belts.

In Ohio, state law does not require seat belts on buses or cameras to catch drivers violating school bus law.

School Transportation News reports an average of 19 kids are killed every year getting on or off the bus, while about seven a year die in school bus crashes.

See Also: What To Do When A Bus Stop Arm Is Extended

Most of the victims are between five and seven years old, according to Stanford Children’s Health, and hit in “danger zones,” the area within 10 feet in front of, behind, and to either side of a bus.
Less than three years ago, 12 children were killed and another 47 injured while getting on and off school buses from August 2018 to March 2019.

Among them were three Rochester, Indiana, siblings who died in 2018 while waiting for their school bus, which authorities said had its stop arm extended and lights flashing. Just a day later, a 9-year-old boy in Tupelo, Mississippi, was killed while crossing a highway trying to get to a school bus.

A year earlier, school bus drivers across the United States saw nearly 78,000 drivers illegally passing school buses in one day, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

“Motorists need to pay attention to what's going on around them," National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services President Michael LaRocco told School Transportation News after the back-to-back days of children’s deaths at school bus stops.