Back-to-School Driver Safety Tips

 

 

School will be in session in a few days, which means there will be more child pedestrians and school buses on the road soon. We've gathered some back-to-school driver safety tips to keep in mind when you're driving during the school year: 

1. All 50 states have a law making it illegal to pass a school bus that is stopped to load or unload children. 

2. School buses use yellow flashing lights to alert motorists that they are preparing to load or unload children. Red flashing lights and an extended stop sign arm will let motorists know that the bus is stopped and is loading or unloading children. 

3. In all 50 states, it is the law that all traffic behind the school bus (traveling in the same direction) must stop. 

4. It is illegal to pass a school bus on the right. Failure to comply to this law can result in tragic consequences.

5. The area 10 feet around a school bus is where children are in the most danger of being hit. Stop your car far enough from the bus to allow children the necessary space to safely enter and exit the bus.

6. Children are the least predictable pedestrians and the most difficult to see. Take extra care to look out for children not only in school zones, but also in residential areas, playgrounds and parks.

7. Don’t honk your horn, rev your engine or do anything to rush or scare a pedestrian in front of your car, even if you have the legal right-of-way.

8. Always stop when directed to do so by a school patrol sign, school patrol officer or designated crossing guard.

9. In a school zone when a warning flasher or flashers are blinking, you must stop to yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a marked crosswalk or at an intersection with no marked crosswalk. 

10. Drivers should not block the crosswalk when stopped at a red light or waiting to make a turn. Do not stop with a portion of your vehicle over the crosswalk.