When Do You Stop For A School Bus? Know The Law In Virginia

VIRGINIA — As schools open in Virginia, drivers may be a bit rusty about what to do when encountering a stopped school bus. Knowing stop arm laws, and following them, can save the lives of dozens of children killed every year in America getting on or off the school bus, transportation safety officials say.

In Virginia, the law requires drivers:

• stop for stopped school buses with flashing red lights and an extended stop sign when approaching from any direction
• remain stopped until everyone is clear and the bus moves again
• stop whenever the bus is loading or unloading passengers, even if the lights and stop sign are not activated
• stop-arm cameras are allowed

A violation can result in a $250 fine. However, if the violation is classified as a reckless driving class 1 misdemeanor charge, the penalty could be a fine up to $2,500 and up to 12 months in jail.

Virginia law also allows for localities to allow video monitoring systems on school buses to record violations of passing school buses.

State law allows localities to use speed cameras in school zones and issue fines up to $100 for violations.

Every year, nearly 500,000 school buses take about 25 million elementary through high school students to and from school, traveling about 5.7 million miles in a single school year. These kids are 70 times more likely to arrive at school alive than those students who get to school by other means, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

However, the National Transportation Safety Board noted on its website, “Far too many drivers simply choose to ignore the law for their own convenience and put children at risk.”

In the 2022-23 school year, the latest period for which data is available, there were 104 school bus-related deaths nationally, including two in Virginia, according to the National Safety Council.

Those fatal crashes aren’t included in National Transportation Safety Board data from 2011 to 2020. It shows 1,009 fatal school transportation-related crashes during the period. Other findings:

• 52 percent of school-age pedestrians killed in school transportation-related crashes were 5- to 10-year-olds.
• 1.6 times more fatalities occurred among pedestrians (183) than occupants of school buses (113) in school-transportation-related crashes.

In most cases when children are injured or killed, it’s when the bus is stopped, the lights are flashing and the stop arm is extended, according to safety experts. It’s illegal in all 50 states to pass a stopped school bus under those conditions.

A survey by the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation released in July estimated that illegal passing of stopped school buses increased by about 4 percent in the 2023-24 school year to about 45.2 million. The estimate is based on a one-day count by school bus drivers in 35 states, adjusted for all school buses operating nationwide.

Such violations continue to be “the greatest safety danger to children,” the group’s president, Mike Stier, said in a statement.

That was tragically illustrated in an illegal school bus passing in 2018 that resulted in the deaths of three young Indiana siblings while they were crossing the road to get on the school bus.

That led the NTSB, an independent agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation, to recommend that states allow stop arm cameras as an enforcement tool. The agency also recommended that school districts minimize the number of school bus stops that require children to cross a roadway.

So far, 25 states have adopted stop arm camera laws, including Virginia.

Increasingly in recent years, state legislatures have adopted policies to improve bus safety. Along with the camera push, a requirement for seat belt use on school buses are keystone policies.

NHTSA data also shows that an average of six student passengers die a year in school bus crashes. The agency recommended in 2018 that states adopt legislation requiring passenger lap and shoulder belts on all new large school bus purchases.