FINAL BILL REPORT
SB 6303
C 241 L 90
BYSenators von Reichbauer, Bender, Thorsness, Murray and Talmadge
Enhancing pedestrian safety.
Senate Committee on Transportation
House Committe on Transportation
SYNOPSIS AS ENACTED
BACKGROUND:
Each year in the United States approximately 8000 pedestrians are killed on our streets and highways. At greatest risk are children and the elderly. For five to nine year olds, pedestrian injuries are the most common cause of death from trauma. More than 50,000 children and adolescents are injured as pedestrians, many sustaining serious head injuries which can lead to permanent disability. Costs to the family and society for treatment and rehabilitation are very high.
Statutes relating to pedestrian and traffic control signals have not been updated since 1975. Language addressing pedestrians in crosswalks has not been updated in 25 years.
School transportation may be hazardous when students enter or alight from buses, especially 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 the roadway has resulted in several fatalities of children who unexpectedly crossed the road.
SUMMARY:
The definition of pedestrian is expanded to include wheelchairs or any means of conveyance propelled by human power other than a bicycle.
All references to vehicles "yielding the right of way" to other vehicles and pedestrians when approaching traffic control devices are changed to state that the operator of a vehicle shall stop to allow the pedestrians or other vehicles lawfully moving within the intersection to complete their movements.
Pedestrians that begin to cross a roadway while facing a control signal exhibiting the word "Walk" or the walking person symbol shall be granted the right to complete their crossing by all vehicle operators. If pedestrians have begun to cross before the display of either signal, vehicle operators shall stop to allow them to complete their movements.
The driver of an approaching vehicle shall stop to allow a pedestrian to cross in a marked or unmarked crosswalk when the pedestrian is on the half of the road on which the vehicle is traveling, or when the pedestrian is on the opposite half of the road and moving toward the approaching vehicle.
When a curb ramp for the disabled is located adjacent to or at an intersection or marked crosswalk, disabled persons may enter the roadway from the curb ramps and cross the roadway within or as close as practicable to the crosswalk. Where sidewalks are provided but wheelchair access is not available, the person in a wheelchair may move along the adjacent roadway until reaching a sidewalk access point.
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 300 feet of the bus stop to assist students who must cross multiple-lane highways.
VOTES ON FINAL PASSAGE:
Senate 39 0
House 97 0 (House amended)
Senate (Senate refused to concur)
Free Conference Committee
House 97 0
Senate 41 0
EFFECTIVE:June 7, 1990