SENATE BILL REPORT

SB 6220

BYSenators Gaspard, Bailey, Rinehart, Bender, Metcalf, Madsen, Murray, Talmadge, Lee, Craswell, Warnke and Conner

Changing rules of the road with regard to school buses and private carrier buses.

Senate Committee on Education

Senate Hearing Date(s):January 29, 1990; January 30, 1990

Majority Report:  Do pass as amended.

      Signed by Senators Bailey, Chairman; Lee, Vice Chairman; Bender, Benitz, Gaspard, Metcalf, Murray, Rinehart.

Senate Staff:Leslie Goldstein (786-7424)

                  January 31, 1990

AS REPORTED BY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION, JANUARY 30, 1990

BACKGROUND:

The most hazardous aspect of school transportation is when students enter or alight from buses, particularly when they must cross the road.

Every year children, particularly young children who do not possess the developmental skills necessary to negotiate traffic successfully, are hit while crossing the street, often after disembarking from the school bus.

Currently, school buses in Washington are permitted to either stop in the travel lane and display stop signs and warning lights or simply pull off to the side of the roadway and display no lights. The ambiguity of this law has encouraged many motorists to disregard stopped school buses.  The absence of flashing lights when the bus is unloading off of the roadway has resulted in a fatality on several occasions when a child unexpectedly crossed the road.

SUMMARY:

A driver on a divided highway need not stop upon meeting a school bus approaching from the opposite direction when the bus is stopped to receive or discharge school children.

A driver on a highway with three or more marked traffic lanes need not stop when meeting a school bus proceeding in the opposite direction when the bus is stopped to receive or discharge school children.

The driver of a school bus shall be required to start the stop signal and flashing red lights on the front and back of the bus only when the bus is stopped on the roadway to receive or discharge school children.

The driver of a school bus may stop completely off the roadway to receive or discharge school children only when the children do not have to cross the roadway, at which time hazard warning lights must be displayed.

Private carrier buses shall comply with all school bus safety laws required of public school district buses.

Both school district buses and private carrier buses shall be equipped with plainly visible signs above the windows containing the words "school bus" or "private carrier bus" in letters no less than eight inches in height.

On divided highways and highways with three or more marked traffic lanes, both public school district and private bus routes shall serve each side of the highway so that students do not have to cross the highway, unless there is a traffic control signal or an adult crossing guard within 500 feet of the bus stop to assist students who must cross multiple-lane highways.

SUMMARY OF PROPOSED COMMITTEE AMENDMENT:

School buses are required to stop within 300 feet of an adult crossing guard or traffic control signal.

Appropriation:    none

Revenue:    none

Fiscal Note:      requested January 16, 1990

Senate Committee - Testified: Don Carnahan, Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction