Wyoming Highway Patrol Lieutenant Erik Jorgensen is asking motorists on the highways to keep a heads-up regarding school buses.
While appearing on Sheridan Media’s Public Pulse program, Jorgensen told listeners that although schools have only been in session for approximately two weeks, his team has cited over a dozen violations of motorists passing a school bus with the stop-arm deployed and the lights on.
Lt. E. Jorgensen
The dozen reported by Jorgensen are only those violations made on highways surrounding Sheridan, not within the city itself or roads patrolled by the Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office.
The stop arm cameras are designed to capture the license plates of the vehicles that commit the violation. Jorgensen reports that due to having this information, the HP will visit the registered address of the vehicle and cite the owner of the vehicle in person as well as educate the owner on the dangers of passing a school bus with the lights flashing and the stop-arm engaged.
Lt. E. Jorgensen
In many cases, children do not yet understand the need to pay attention while loading and unloading from the school bus. The Kansas State Department of Education’s School Bus Safety Unit prepares the National School Bus Loading and Unloading Survey. Within the 2019-2020 report, it states that during the last 50 years, the largest percentage of fatalities occurred to students 9 years of age or younger.
Motorists of Sheridan County must stop in both directions of travel when a school bus begins to flash its red lights and deploys the Stop-Arm. Motorists cannot continue to travel until the lights are off, the Stop-Arm retracted and the bus continues movement. The penalty for the driver is $435.
More Like this
Last modified: September 13, 2022