Bus Stop.. Speeding Drivers and Accidents Waiting to Happen

You did do the right thing. And you should call again on Monday and again on Tuesday and every day until they get a cop car to sit out there around the time the bus comes to hand out tickets.

You hear about people being hit by cars just about every day on the news and most of them are in crosswalks!

l don't know what the laws are in NJ on school bus stops but here you have to stop on both sides on the road.
You did the right thing on calling them.

Keep calling. Get everyone you know to call, even if they are not directly affected.
You are right to be worried, a crossing guard was killed a few years back in front of a school in our neighborhood due to a fast driver and poorly marked crosswalk. Sadly it took his life to get the city to fix the situation and now it's much safer.
Figure out what would help ie. a stop sign, speed limit sign, crosswalk or just cops writing tickets (so it'll be known as a speed trap) and then keep bugging the city about it. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Good luck!

Find out your state laws on stopping for school buses, and keep calling the cops.

Hi jody-

When my kiddos were younger...we had a corner lot...and we were 'bus central' for elementary, middle and high school. It was a residential neighborhood...but a 'main' road...if you know what I mean. So many folks - eager to get on their way to work - would just ZOOM by! (although, I have to say, many did stop for the flashing red lights...not so much the yellow...:( .

I not only called the police, I called the transportation folks (state...not the bus...although the 'bus drivers' were aware of the concern...) And we had a traffic study done...a new stop sign went up (as well as kids crossing signs) and I am SURE a life (or two) was saved...

IMO...you did the right thing...

Might even want to consider more...

Best Luck!
michele/cat

Yes, you did the right thing.
What I would do now is rally contacting the city to get them to install speed bumps on that route/street.
Have several of your neighbors sign it (those who have kids in school &
those that don't).
Call your city hall, ask to speak to the city council board members, leave a message on their voicemails, send a short professional letter detailing the problem & an easy solution.
Teach your kids they HAVE to look, look then look again watching for cars
Tell them not to cross the street until they are certain it's safe. Show them
how you think they can do that.
Call your local news station (some will highlight this & call attention to it).

Well, how else would you handle it, J.?

It's the police's business to police the cars. Not yours. Trying to deal with 2 ton cars vs little lady is not a smart thing to do. Let the police do their job. I can't imagine why you wonder if you should have called them - you don't owe speeding cars who break the biggest moving violation of all (isn't it 5 points for passing a stopped schoolbus?) any consideration at all!

Btw, keep calling - maybe a police car will come out there and sit.

It's about saving lives, you know.

Dawn

Yes! You did the right thing. I had the same problem. I would take my camera and snap pictures and take them to the down to report them. People know better so when they see you with the camera, they slow down. Can the driver pull at an angle? I've seen drivers do that, they block both directions. That only works on a two lane street though, more and it won't help. Is there a safer spot, but still on the route? I called the bus depot one year and they gave another stop. It was safer and it didn't alter the driver's route. Maybe try that. I was really lucky the first yr b/c she was the only one at the stop and he started letting her off at our driveway. The next yrs...not so lucky. Good Luck

Good for you!
If they (the police) are smart, they will park an unmarked police car on your street or in your driveway and ticket each and every violator, and repeat the process randomly every few weeks till the message gets through.

If your police department is willing: Over the summer contact their community liaison officer. Talk with that officer about the police being present at that location every morning and/or afternoon (you may have to pick one or the other, pick whichever is worst for this problem) in the first week or two of school. Have the cops out there with their speed radar guns pointed at traffic. Doing it for several days in a row, or randomly but often over a week or two, will at least temporarily scare drivers enough to make them slow down and pay more attention to both speed and the buses.

I also like the idea below about asking the cops to post an unmarked car looking for bus "stop" violators and ticketing the heck out of them.

Also, do police in your area have electronic portable signs they can move from place to place around town? I'm talking here about the kind of signs with electronic messages that flash on them, things like "Road works ahead" or "Road closed 5/31 for parade," those kinds of signs. Ask if they can set one up for the first week of school with a message like "Stop for school buses displaying STOP sign" or something like that.

In other words....You were right to call the cops today. Now work with them over the summer to get the word out (and maybe scare some dumb drivers) when school starts. It may not stick all year long but it is a start.

You did not say in your post: Did the cops come today when you called? What did they do? Usually if they do not see a driving offense they can actually do nothing about it. Can you add a "So What Happened"?

You did the right thing.

I would take this up with your school board or enlist help from the PTA on where and how to start getting the bus stop permanently moved to a side street with less traffic.

Good for you! Do whatever it takes to keep your (and others') little ones safe. The next school district over from us had a fatality this past year. Although it's still being contested in court, all the eyewitness accounts were that the bus was stopped with red lights flashing, that teens were crossing the road, and that the car barely slowed up before hitting two high school students. I've always been a "speedy" driver, but I simply don't understand why everyone can't slow down for walkers, bikers, and especially school buses... So, kudos to you for taking action. Thus far, the only thing I've done for my kindergarteners is to yell "slow down" to cars who don't slow down or yield to us when we're walking to or from school :-(

In our state it is a law to stop when the bus has stop lights on. You can get ticketed for it.

We do not live in a busy area but when my daughter was in elementary school, we did have some issues with people in the neighborhood not stopping and not stopping at stop signs.

We did not call the police. The bus driver has contact with authorities. Afer the bus driver notified the police and told them the specific areas of concern, a police car started hanging out in that area and the city made some some $$ for a little while.

After that, the police would randomly be in the area watching and it stopped because no one knew when the officers were watching.

The law here is very tough in school zones and regarding buses. If the bus driver had not told us that he notified the police, one of us at the bus stop would have.

So, yes. If I were you, I would have notified the police as well because who knows who's child you may be protecting. Since school is almost out... I would be on high alert when school starts in the fall and possibly give the officers a heads up about that time.

Around here a lot of $$ is made for the city when school starts because people forget about the school zones which runs about $200 fine plus if you are on a cell phone that starts at $200 fine as well.

I think the school should address this issue. If they are dropping her off across the street and you are jaywalking to go get her they might even blame you for any accident. I would make the bus stop somewhere it is safer than a busy street where traffic is busy and driving fast. It does not sound safe.

They could also have a police officer follow the bus for a day or two to see if they could suggest something different. Maybe the people in your town do not understand that when the bus stops and puts out that stop sign on the drivers window it means they must stop. If the bus driver is not doing that then the cars do not have to stop. Lights flashing does not mean cars must stop.

I'm curious why you wonder if calling the police was the right thing to do where the safety of children is concerned. Anyway, yes, the police are the ones to call in hopes that they will "hide" in the future to actually catch the crazy drivers. And, you need to complain to the school bus supervisor so you can see if there is an alternate bus stop other than on the highway. If there is a side street the bus can turn down and is able to go around the block (like in my neighborhood there is), maybe there is a better option. I would call the police daily and complain about it.

I would have done the same thing. Your safety as well as the lives of others is at stake!

I'd also go to the police department and ask for a consultation with someone in authority. See if they can put one of those freestanding speed limit machines at the bus stop, or have a police car with radar pointing out the window about the time the bus comes by.

Or I'd take it to the City Council to ask them for help and ideas to make the bus stop safe. Council members are often elected and are happy to get involved, show they care and maybe end up in the news for doing something good.

In the meantime, how about wearing a bright orange vest and carrying one of those crossing guard signs when you meet the bus? Good luck and stay safe!

I am kind of confused which isn't unusual. Around here a main road is four lanes which by law a bus cannot drop a child off on the opposite side of the road because also by law the traffic coming from the opposite side does not have to stop for a bus. You only have to stop on a two lane road.

So just outside of our subdivision there is a two lane road with a speed limit of 35 MPH again you cannot drop the kids off on the opposite side of the road because it has a speed limit above 25 MPH.

Are you getting where I am going? In both situations a bus cannot drop off on the opposite side of the road.

Now if you are talking a road with a speed limit of 25 it is not a main road. The protections afforded a child getting on or off a bus is not conveyed to their mom unless you are crossing with the child. In other words the bus comes, the flashing lights go on, traffic stops and you and your child cross the road.

Sorry if I seem all over the place but I don't really know which situation applies but to answer your question, yes, I would have handled things differently. I would have gone after the bus system until they did the right thing.

You did the right thing. The same thing happens in our neighborhood. The school has 2 crosswalks in front of it, about a block apart. Not only do people park all the way up to the crosswalks, severely limiting visibility for both passing cars and pedestrians waiting to cross (and there are signs posted that say "no parking this side of sign"), but people drive through the crosswalks at 40mph even when there are small children already in the crosswalk. Every now and then the principal calls the police and they set up a speed trap and wait for these jerks to come barreling through the intersection. When they do, they rake in an absolute fortune in tickets - as fast as they write a ticket, they pull over another car. That usually solves the problem for a month or two, and then they have to do it all over again. Why can't people just not drive like jerks?? Especially when little kids are involved? Does it make them feel great to almost run over a 5 year old in the yellow crosswalk? ("I showed THAT kid - that'll teach him to walk to school! Bwahaha...")

Of course you did the right thing. I'm just not sure how much this can be controlled, realistically.

I think that requesting that the school district move the bus stop to a side street or less busy street would be a more permanent solution to the problem.

I have called several times about an intersection near us. And I know I am not the only parent to call about it. We had a crossing guard for half the year and when he quit, they never replaced him. People speed through, don't yield and almost hit kids regularly. In fact we stopped walking it has gotten so out of hand and unsafe. I called the non emergency line and logged complaints. It hasn't solved the problem, but I have noticed more patrolling of that area. As long as you didn't bog down 911 with this, I think you did all you could. It may not solve the problem, but it definitely can't hurt.