“Might Have Passed School Bus Stop”

I might have passed the school bus today. I did not notice the stop sign arm, until I passed the school bus and looked back and saw the stop arm is out.

I wonder how long before I receive a ticket if the driver reported me?

I live around Niagara region.

The government provides school bus drivers with a form they can fill out for illegal passing of a school bus. If there is enough information for a charge, an officer will write up a ticket and deliver it to the residence of the registered owner.

The registered owner of the vehicle, which may or may not have been the driver during the incident in question, will receive the ticket. They are charged as owner of the vehicle, not the driver.

There's two separate laws for this scenario.

One is where the driver is charged. If you were pulled over at the scene, you'd be charged as the driver and you'd hand over your license.

If you were not pulled over at the scene, they can't prove who was driving so they use the other law at their disposal that allows them charge the owner of the vehicle.

Long story short, being charged as the owner is the equivalent of a glorified parking ticket and you can treat it as such.

It has no impact on your license whatsoever.

Another reason to always have a dash cam recording.

If you can prove any of the following, you could get the charge withdrawn:

A) the stop sign must be fully flipped out from the side of the bus;

B) was there a raised median beside the bus;

C) was the bus the proper distance from the intersection