“Would I Get Charged For Stopping Too Close To Stopped Bus ?”

Hi Everyone,

I had an incident today where there was a stopped school bus with the arm extended and red lights flashing. I was approaching from the front of the bus and stopped a good distance from the bus and waited until all the kids left.

Once all the people had gotten off the bus, the driver still had the lights flashing so I kept waiting and this went on for a few minutes. Eventually I honked my horn at the driver and she didn’t respond. So I crept forward until my engine hood was just adjacent to the bus’s front wheels and stopped so I could ask the driver what the delay was. I didn’t go any further.

When the driver saw me she turned off the lights and retracted the arm so I carried on.

My question is, will what I did be considered passing the school bus and land me a ticket ?

Technically, you could. Will anything come out of this situation? Most likely not.

When meeting, you're supposed to stop before reaching the bus. You cannot proceed until the lights stop flashing or the bus starts moving.

The bus driver is supposed to continue with the stop until all passengers, receiving or discharging, have completed their crossings.

However, you wouldn't worry about what the bus driver is supposed to do, just whatever your obligations would be.

That being said, it sounds like the bus driver might have been distracted one way or another. Doesn't sound like anything will come out of it. Just a simple mistake. Everybody moves on.