The School Bus, the Painted Line and the Car That Keeps Coming
At 8:05 a.m. on a damp October morning you are eastbound on a two-lane collector road in a 60 km/h zone, one lane in each direction, separated only by a painted yellow centre line. Wet leaves are packed along the shoulder and gutter. You are 45 metres behind a school bus that has begun to slow, and a small hatchback is 10 metres behind you.
The bus stops and its red lights begin to flash; the stop arm swings out. Through the windows you can see children standing, and a child in a red jacket is already at the front door. In the oncoming lane a car is 60 metres away, travelling at about the speed limit, showing no sign of slowing. Your mirrors are clear apart from the hatchback, which has closed to about 8 metres. There is no median, no raised divider, and no other separation between the directions.
1. What does the law require of you, and what does it require of the oncoming car? Explain the difference between this road and a divided highway.
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On this road you must stop and stay stopped while the red lights are flashing and the stop arm is out, and you must not proceed until the lights stop and the children are clear. That is not a courtesy - passing a stopped school bus with its lights flashing is one of the most heavily penalised moving offences on the books, and it is one where the harm is measured in children.
Because the two directions are separated only by a painted line, the requirement applies to traffic meeting the bus as well as following it. The oncoming car is legally required to stop. It is not slowing, which makes it a hazard you must anticipate rather than a fact you can rely on.
The rule changes on a divided highway - one with a physical median, raised divider or ditch separating the directions. There, traffic on the opposite side of the median is not required to stop for a bus on the other side, because children are not expected to cross the median. The distinguishing feature is the physical separation, not the number of lanes and not the painted line.
2. How do you stop safely with the hatchback 8 metres behind, and what do you do about the oncoming car that may not stop?
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The hatchback is less than a second behind on wet leaves, so your stop has to begin earlier and more gently than the distance to the bus would otherwise require. Lift off as soon as the bus's amber lights or slowing tell you what is coming, apply the brakes progressively so your brake lights are lit for a long time, and stop well back from the bus rather than nose-to-tail with it. That gap is your escape room if the hatchback does not stop.
Watch the hatchback in the mirror while you brake. If it is clearly not going to stop, you can ease forward or toward the shoulder, but you do not drive past the bus and you do not enter the oncoming lane.
As for the oncoming car: assume it will not stop until you see it stopping. Do not flash your lights and assume that fixes it. Keep your own position behind the bus and be ready for the possibility that a child, seeing one car stop, steps out expecting the other to as well. If the oncoming car does blow through, that is the moment to be stationary and predictable, not to move.
3. The child in the red jacket is crossing. What do you watch for, and when do you move off?
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Watch the whole bus, not just the child. Children leave in clusters, and a second or third child may follow the first without looking. Watch for a child who reaches the far side and then turns back, for a sibling running to catch up, and for any movement at the front of the bus where the driver's view is worst. The bus driver's hand signals and the mirrors on the bus tell you what the driver is managing.
You move off when the red lights stop flashing and the stop arm folds, and not before. A child reaching the far shoulder is not the signal, and neither is the bus starting to roll. Before you go, re-check the oncoming lane, because the car that failed to stop may still be coming, and check your own mirror for the hatchback.
When you do pull away, do it slowly and scan the shoulder. Wet leaves on a damp October morning are as slippery as ice in a braking zone, and a child who slips at the roadside is exactly the situation this whole rule exists to prevent.