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Article published Aug 10, 2003
Law allowing motorists to pass stopped buses must be monitored closely

Schools have begun opening their doors, and as nearly 335,000 of the state's children board buses for their daily rides, it is important that they and drivers pay attention to the changing rules of the road.South Carolina has a new law that will allow motorists on four-lane roads to pass a stopped school bus. The change is designed to improve safety, but it should be closely monitored and revised if safety is compromised rather than enhanced.To some, it may sound foolish, particularly to the families whose children were killed or injured by passing vehicles while they waited to board a school bus.Critics of the new law have legitimate concerns, and bus drivers, law enforcement officers, parents and students will have to be on their guard as the new school year begins and confusion sets in among motorists not sure about how to approach a stopped school bus.It's understandable that some would fear that allowing a motorist to drive past a stopped bus would endanger children, and it remains against the law to ignore the stop arm of a school bus loading or unloading passengers on a two-lane road. Vehicles traveling in either direction must stop.A change in the law, however, allows motorists on roads that contain four or more lanes to ignore the flashing lights and stop arm of a bus in the oncoming lane. The intent is to keep traffic flowing along major arteries, a good measure as long as it doesn't confuse motorists on when to stop and when not to stop and as long as bus drivers are able to prevent students from crossing four lanes of traffic.The law on stopping for school buses was simple until 1978. If a bus stopped, motorists traveling in either direction stopped. That year, the law was rewritten, giving motorists the right to pass stopped, oncoming buses as long as the lanes of traffic were separated by a raised or dirt median. Drivers still had to stop if the lanes were separated by a gravel median or painted lines.Some transportation officials view the latest change as making safety sense by removing some of the confusion that came with the 1978 change. But it's easy to see why others, including parents, fear that further relaxing the law could lead to more tragedy. Details of the law could become lost in the minds of motorists as they drive along a two-lane road and fail to stop while a bus is unloading children.Ignoring the warning signs of a stopped school bus is not an uncommon occurrence in South Carolina. Troopers statewide in the past 2½ years issued 294 tickets to motorists accused of ignoring stop-arm warnings of school buses. That's good reason for school transportation officials and the Highway Patrol to put more emphasis on a rule change that has the potential to harm rather than protect children.At the first sign of the new law making matters worse, the General Assembly shouldn't give a moment's hesitation to reversing it.