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“As our children are returning to school with many using school buses, it is time to remind drivers that passing stopped school buses with flashing lights is not only illegal but dangerous. We are providing this blog to remind drivers to always be aware of their surroundings when driving and to protect our children,” said Florida Child Injuries Attorney, Randall Spivey of Spivey Law Firm, Personal Injury Attorneys, P.A.

School bus drivers in Lee, Collier, and Charlotte Counties have been preparing and training to safely transport our students to and from school every day.

Lee County

Lee County Transportation Services transports approximately 85 percent of the student population using 765 school buses. These buses are not only used for transportation to and from school but also for school related activities, such as field trips and intramural activities, according to the Lee County School District. Each school year, school bus drivers travel over 12.6 million miles, and the department has 1,300 employees. School bus drivers and maintenance crews are trained to ensure that their driving is safe, and that the buses are in good working condition.

Collier County

The Collier County Transportation Department has 400 employees, a fleet of 300 buses and transports 20,000 students every day, according to their website. Training for school bus drivers and maintenance personnel is conducted to be sure students are safely transported in Collier County.

Charlotte County

The Charlotte County Transportation Department covers the areas of Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda, Englewood, and Murdock. Its mission is, “To ensure that each eligible Charlotte County Public School student is positive and ready to learn by providing safe, equitable, and on-time transportation services. To accomplish this mission, it provides, among other things, pre-service and in-service training programs, and an on-the-road safety program to monitor bus drivers.

The counties in our area are ready.

Are you ready for driving when school buses are present?

Illegally passing stopped school buses puts kids in danger.

In an article published by School Transportation News in December 2014, Tami Hatke, a school bus driver in Indiana, wrote about “What it is like to be a school bus driver.” Here are her comments:

"Some stops I will have a distracted motorist run my stop arm. Then it's up to me to get the description of the vehicle, description of the driver and the plate number, all while making sure the student doesn't get hit and remains safe. To get a school bus driver’s blood to boil is to run their stop arm. I know it's really hard to see a huge big yellow bus with red flashing lights!We are doing our best to keep these children safe and get them back to their parents safe. The parents put their trust in us! Our main enemy is the actual motorist, not the student. We have motorists honk at us for taking too long to load or unload.”

Today News reported in 2015 that, “Vehicles pass stopped school buses more than 70,000 times a day, even though passing one with its lights flashing is illegal in all 50 states. The problem has gotten so bad that school districts across the country are installing new technology on school buses: little cameras that activate when the bus stops. Like traffic signal cameras, they capture the license plate numbers of any cars that fly by. Violators are sent tickets in the mail, with fines ranging from $100 all the way up to $1,000.”

In Washington state the Bethel School District put cameras on some of their school buses in 2015. In just 55 days, those cameras recorded 139 cases of drivers speeding past buses that were stopped with their lights flashing. If there were cameras on all their buses, they say there could be as many as 80 violations each day, reported FOX News.

Florida laws state that any person using, operating, or driving a vehicle on or over the roads or highways of this state shall, upon approaching any school bus that displays a stop signal bring such vehicle to a full stop while the bus is stopped, and the vehicle shall not pass the school bus until the signal has been withdrawn.

A Florida Department of Education survey in October 2015 showed that 334 people in Lee County were caught passing school buses when the top sign was out. Collier County had 216 violators and Charlotte County had 68.

Lee County installed cameras on two school buses in 2015-2016. According to Robert Morgan, executive director of Lee County Transportation Services, “We ran the cameras for about six months, we had 81 stop violations on those two buses.”

Remember, always stop for stopped school buses with blinking lights!

Florida Child Injuries Attorney, Randall L. Spivey is a Board Certified Trial Attorney – the highest recognition for competence bestowed by the Florida Bar and a distinction earned by just one (1%) percent of Florida attorneys. He has handled over 2,000 personal injury and wrongful death cases throughout Florida. For a free and confidential consultation to discuss your legal rights, contact the Spivey Law Firm, Personal Injury Attorneys, P.A., in Lee County at 239.337.7483 or toll free at 1.888.477.4839,or by email to Randall@SpiveyLaw.com. Visit SpiveyLaw.com for more information. You can contact Spivey Law Firm, Personal Injury Attorneys, P.A.in Charlotte County at 941.764.7748 and in Collier County 239.793.7748.