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

WISCONSIN — When schools open across Wisconsin in September, motorists may be a bit rusty, or entirely ignorant, about what to do when they encounter a stopped school bus and children going to and from school.

Every year, more than 25 million elementary through high school students get to and from school on buses, which travel about 5.7 billion miles in a single school year, according to the American School Bus Council.

When they ride the bus, they’re about 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.

There are dangers, though — notably when children get on and off the bus. When children are injured or killed, it usually happens when the school bus is stopped, the lights are flashing and the stop arm is extended, according to safety experts.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia require motorists to come to a complete stop any time they encounter a bus with its lights flashing and stop arm extended.

In Wisconsin, the law requires drivers to stop at least 20 feet away from a school bus when it is displaying red warning lights, and drivers must stay stopped until the bus continues driving or the red lights go away, according to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

Drivers who fail to stop can face a fine up to $300. The laws dont apply when drivers are on the other side of a divided highway, but they do apply if there is no barrier on a multi-lane street or highway, WisDOT noted.

Despite laws, transportation officials estimate that about 42 million times every year, motorists pull around the legally stopped school buses, risking the lives of children as they get on and off. An average of six students a year died while attempting to board or get off their school buses from 2012 to 2021, according to the most recent National School Bus Loading and Unloading Survey.

The report from the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services didn’t discuss injuries and near misses, but safety experts say those numbers are much higher than the count of children who are killed.

While all states require a complete stop when the stop arm is extended, there are nuances. Most require other motorists to stop regardless of their direction, unless there’s a median separating lanes of traffic. And about half of states allow local governments or school districts to use cameras to capture images and issue tickets for drivers illegally passing stopped school buses.

In a single day in 2017, more than 104,000 school bus drivers observed nearly 78,000 instances in which motorists illegally passed stopped school buses, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. At that rate, the tally for the entire school year would be around 14 million violations.

Another National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report found that from 2006-2015, 102 pedestrians under 18 were killed in school-transportation-related crashes.

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.