On Wednesday, Oct. 23, Abington School District, in partnership with the Abington Township Police Department, participated in the 23rd annual Operation Safe Stop, an initiative conducted in communities across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as part of National School Bus Safety Week, which runs Oct. 21-25. Operation Safe Stop, organized by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, is a public awareness and enforcement effort to educate the motoring public that passing a stopped school bus, when children are loading or unloading, is both dangerous and illegal. Each year, through Operation Safe Stop, law enforcement agencies, school transportation providers, pupil transportation associations and PennDOT have combined their efforts to raise public awareness about the potential consequences and reduce the occurrence of illegal school bus passes.
As part of Abington School District’s efforts, problem areas are identified by the District’s Supervisor of Transportation, and police officers then monitor those trouble spots in order to catch, and issue tickets to, those who violate the School Bus Stopping Law. Additionally, throughout the day, bus drivers monitor any violations that they witness, which they record and send to PennDOT for reporting purposes.
According to the PennDOT website, Pennsylvania’s School Bus Stopping Law requires motorists to stop at least 10 feet away from school buses that have their red lights flashing and stop arm extended. Motorists must stop when they are behind the bus, meeting the bus or approaching an intersection where a bus is stopped. Motorists following or traveling alongside a school bus must also stop until the red lights have stopped flashing, the stop arm is withdrawn, and all children have reached safety. If physical barriers such as grassy medians, guide rails or concrete median barriers separate oncoming traffic from the bus, motorists in the opposing lanes may proceed without stopping.
For more information, please visit https://www.dmv.pa.gov/Driver-Services/School-Bus-Drivers/Pages/Operation-Safe-Stop.aspx.