Indiana School Bus Tragedy Should Serve as Reminder for Kentucky Drivers to Know When to Stop

Beyond horrific emotions erupt when reviewing accident reports coming from sister state Indiana involving a driver who missed the stop arm warning and blinking lights of a school bus and caused the deaths of three school-aged children who were on their way to board. The incident proves that while children being killed when getting on or off the school bus is rare it does happen and most often from another vehicle passing illegally in their direct path. As we saw, these collisions will nearly always end in the tragic, and painful loss of innocent lives and prompt watchdog safety strategies of bus companies, school systems, parents, and the National Transportation Safety Board due to their severity. Rhoads & Rhoads would like to do their part to join in and share not only our thoughts and prayers with the family and friends of those lost but also provide a warning to Kentucky drivers that they can avoid causing an accident such as this by practicing lawful driving habits.

Get Familiar with Kentucky’s School Bus Traffic Laws

After this tragedy, several local news channels in Kentucky learned stop arm violations continue to be a problem in west Kentucky. For example, Paducah Public Schools Transportation Director Steve Spraggs told Local 6, eight violations have been reported since the current semester began, and Marshall County Schools said the district sees roughly two stop arm violations a week.

Anyone responsible for a motor vehicle needs to become better acquainted with a driving lesson on how to interact with Kentucky School buses and their precious cargo.

Here’s when traffic from both directions must stop:

• On a two-lane roadway, when a school bus stops for students, all traffic from both directions must stop.
• On a two-lane roadway with a center turn lane, when a school bus stops for students, all traffic from both directions must stop.

Here’s when only traffic driving behind the bus must stop:

• On a four-lane roadway with no median, when a school bus stops for students, only traffic following the bus must stop.
• On a four-lane divided highway with a median, when a school bus stops for students, only traffic following the bus must stop.
• On a four-lane roadway with a center turn lane, when a school bus stops for students, only traffic following the bus must stop.

Let’s all do our job in keeping Kentucky children safe by becoming more cautious and alert drivers. The Kentucky Department of Education has made an infographic explaining how the school bus stop law works and we encourage all of our readers to review the guide and share it with others on your social networks to help prevent a tragedy like the one in Indiana from occurring here in Kentucky.

Any injury to a child is devastating, and the loss of a child can feel like the loss of everything. If you find yourself in this situation, please know we are here for your family.