School Bus Passing Laws

From San Jose to Livermore; from Novato to Sacramento; from San Francisco to Richmond, a new school year has begun and with it school buses are busy shuttling students from home to their local school.

Have you ever seen those flashing stop signal arms on school buses? They are there for a reason. A recent NBC news segment reported a disturbing number of reckless driving incidents around school buses, with video after video of inpatient drivers ignoring the stop signs and almost severely injuring or even killing a child.

The laws on passing school buses are clear: California vehicle code 22454 (a) prohibits the passing of a school bus “when the bus is stopped for the purposes of loading and/or unloading any school children, and displays flashing red lights and/or a stop signal arm.”  Nevertheless, school bus drivers across the country reported a staggering 95,000 violations on a single day in 2019, amounting to 17 million a year. Anxious to combat this problem, school districts have began installing cameras onto signal arms, hoping to dissuade drivers from passing the bus.

To state the obvious, if you find yourself behind a school bus unloading children, you should never attempt to go around it, regardless of how late you are to your appointment. Doing so is unlawful and can carry severe consequences. Parents should discuss with their children the importance of roadside safety, especially when exiting the school bus. 

Kauffman & Associates encourages vigilant adherence to safe driving. Please drive responsibly and follow all the laws of the road. If you are the victim of a car accident and sustain personal injuries as a result, please contact our team of accident specialists.