OHTA.ca

Hi,

I couldn't find the bylaw regarding this - thanks for your answers in advance.

This morning I was coming out of my neighbourhood lane, let's call it road A. I stopped at a stop sign while waiting for a left turn to get into single-laned road B (speed limit 70km/hr). Road A and B intersects perpendicularly.

Road B was busy so I waited and waited. About 30 seconds later, a school bus came on Road B (to my left). Bus stopped. Kids started boarding. All cars on road B from both directions stopped for the school bus. I thought "thanks for covering me, school bus!" I then proceeded with my left turn, and heard a horn, maybe from the school bus or maybe from one of the stopped cars. I was confused.

In my knowledge (and according to wikipedia regarding school bus stopping), all drivers on road B has to stop, but drivers on road A should not be affected. There was no way I could hit any kid boarding or leaving the bus.

I wonder whether the bylaws in Ottawa is different? (I just moved here.) I did stop long before the bus came, but I decided to not stop anymore. But I guess it still counts for "failure to stop"

Thanks.

If I understand correctly, you turned left towards the school bus, meeting it head on. Did you actually pass the school bus while its lights were flashing? If you simply turned left but stopped before reaching the bus, your actions sound lawful. If you kept going and passed the bus while its lights were flashing, then you committed an HTA offence.

It has nothing to do with by-laws. It is the Highway Traffic Act.

As Stanton said - if you passed the bus going the other way with its lights flashing, you did commit an offence - a big one. $2000 fine + 6 demerit points. Road "A" is only unaffected for traffic that is not proceeding toward the bus.

If you did pass the school bus with it's lights on, you may be getting a nasty surprise in the mail. Remember, for this offence the registered owner of the vehicle can be charged (minus demerit points) if the bus driver records your plate.

Thanks. There was no light flashing on the bus.

So it is fine to go straight or turn right, right?

And if I left turn first and stop right before the school bus, it is also fine, is it? (At least I get a chance to come out, not waiting for for all the stopped traffic to get through.) Is there a minimal distance to the bus to keep in the law?

Yes, in your example you could legally proceed straight through or turn right, even if the school bus had its lights or stop arm activated. That is of course assuming you've yielded right away to all other vehicles and obeyed any other traffic controls such as the stop sign. In your example I'm curious as to why everyone was stopped if the bus didn't have its lights activated.

As for your last questions, the HTA states you must stop 20 metres back from a bus when approaching from behind, but when approaching head on it simply states you must stop before reaching the bus.

Thanks for the explanation. I was also wondering why the bus didn't have any of the warning sign (so I decided to come out before the driver push the button. )

Stopping 20 meters behind the bus is hard on this road, though - single lane, speed limit 70, busy in the morning. It would be better if the bus comes in the community lane to do the pick up to not blocking the heavy traffic.