|
Emergency - 911 |
    |
Arizona Revised Statutes (ARS) 28-857 states that an operator of a motor vehicle, traveling in either direction of a stopped school bus, shall come to a complete stop and shall not pass or overtake any school bus with proper red flashing lights and/or stop signals activated in the commencement of picking up or dropping off school children. The standard fine for violating this statute is $500.00, one of the highest moving violation fines in the state.
According to data maintained by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2005 there was an average of 15 child related fatalities involving school buses and/or school bus stops where the child was in the process of embarking or debarking from a school bus. When you consider that, according to the NHTSA, twenty-three million children begin and end their school day from a bus stop; the sheer possibility of the number of drivers who would fail to stop for school buses is staggering.
Beginning on Monday, January 9th 2012, dayshift officers from South Mountain Precinct will begin an intensive, high enforcement program designed to educate or cite drivers who fail to stop for school buses when they are picking up or dropping off our children. This program will continue throughout the month of January. Designated officers will assume a static position at one of the designated drop off and/or pick-up points within the precinct and will monitor that area for violators. The locations selected will be those areas where most violations occur and where the greatest harm to children may result. The most hazardous locations for children are on or near major thoroughfares. Officers will concentrate their efforts in the major thoroughfare locations around South Mountain Precinct.