Passing Stopped School Buses Imperils Kids

This is written especially to the jerk in the maroon, silver and gray extended-bed pickup truck with muddy license plates who decided to drive past the stopped school bus with flashing red lights and stop paddle out that was loading my boys.

My twin 5-year-old sons have cerebral palsy and both are in wheelchairs.

Gee, I’m sorry we so interfered with your busy schedule that you could wait only long enough for us to load one of my children into the bus.

You decided to go past the bus as my other son was up on the wheelchair lift.

Not only did you break the law (RCW 46.61.370), for which you could be fined, you also endangered the lives of three people.

If you had clipped the side of that bus as you went by, you would have turned that wheelchair lift into a catapult!

I suggest that you and those like you either find another route, or wait the two whole minutes it takes to safely load my children.

This has happened at least five time since September. Last school year I lost count.

I’ve called eight different school transportation offices in Spokane County. Of the eight, East Valley, West Valley, Central Valley, Mead and Nine Mile all have seen dramatic increases in the past two years in the number of drivers ignoring the flashing red lights on stopped school buses.

And some of those drivers are going by the school bus on the right shoulder of the road!

At my stop between Euclid and Wellesley on Campbell Road, it is not young, foolish teenagers who are failing to stop. It’s older people who ought to know better.

It’s up to adults to protect the children as they enter and exit the school bus. It is not up to the children to protect themselves from adult drivers in a big hurry.

The next time you think about driving past a stopped school bus, think again. Stay put until the bus driver drops the stop paddle and shuts of the red flashing lights.

The stakes - a child’s life - are too high!

xxxx