With the school year about to get underway Grey County OPP wants to remind motorists that school buses will once again be on area roadways.
Every year the detachment receives complaints about motorists passing stopped school buses. The excuses given by drivers often indicate that they don’t clearly understand what is required of them by law, but more often than not inattentive driving or simply driving too fast is the true cause for the potentially grievous driving error.
Motorists are reminded of their duty to come to a complete stop for any school bus with overhead lights activated that has stopped on the roadway to pickup or discharge students. In addition to the lights, the bus drivers push out the stop sign to indicate they are stopped and about to discharge or pick up students. A motorist must stop at least 20 meters back.
A motorist is required to stop when meeting or overtaking a school bus, and this includes roadways with three or more lanes of traffic unless there is a median or physical divider separating the lanes of traffic in which case the traffic on the other side of the median or divider would not be affected.
A motorist who fails to comply with this duty is liable to a set fine of $400.00 plus court costs and six demerit points. While the fine and demerit points makes clear the seriousness of the offence it pales in comparison to the consequences should a child be struck.
