When a bus STOP sign goes out, drivers behind it must stop.
There are numerous children and youth from Pacific Palisades, who attend private schools and Paul Revere Middle School. Many take a private yellow school bus.
When the bus is loading or unloading, the stop sign by the front driver’s window on the bus comes out and red lights come on. If you’re directly behind the bus, do you stop? Do you stop if you are in the lane next to the bus? Do you stop if you’re in the traffic approaching the bus?
HERES THE LAW:
On a two-lane road with no median, traffic MUST STOP on both sides of the road. That would be the case on Alma Real by the library. If the bus puts up the Stop sign, both sides of traffic must stop.
On a two-lane road with a center-turn lane, traffic MUST STOP on both sides of the road.
On a four-lane road, such as Sunset Boulevard, the side of traffic without the bus can continue driving cautiously. But cars in both lanes behind the bus MUST STOP, until the Stop sign is put down.
Last week, one resident stopped, as she was required to by law. She told CTN that “eleven cars whizzed past my daughter’s bus this afternoon, and that one woman in a Tesla gave me the finger.” She has reported license plate numbers to LAPD’s Traffic Safety Office, who is also reaching out to California Highway Patrol.
She reminded residents “A family in our neighborhood lost their only daughter to a driver ignoring this law, not so many years ago. Don’t be that driver.”
According to a report by Stanford Children’s Health, an average of 19 school aged children are killed each year.
Thanks Sue for writing this. Just so folks are forewarned, a complaint has been filed with west traffic and they will be enforcing this law with citations in the coming weeks. Please also stay tuned for community forums on traffic safety here in PP in the coming months.
Thank you for educating the masses. I can’t tell you how many times I get angry honks from other people when I stop for a school bus with its stop sign extended. Typically, no one else stops with me — they just look for an opening to pull around me. Let’s hope that your article reaches some of them before an accident occurs.