Senator Draheim introduces bill to increase awareness of school bus stop arms

Today, the Minnesota Senate Transportation Finance and Policy Committee held a hearing regarding school bus safety and the dangers of not stopping for school bus stop signs. Senator Rich Draheim (R-Madison Lake) presented a bipartisan bill to increase education and awareness of the risks of cars passing school buses. The legislation would create a public relations campaign to convey the importance of stopping once a school bus has its stop sign extended and help highlight the shocking amount of infractions occurring in our state. 

“Minnesota buses are tasked with getting our children to school and home safely at the start and end of the day,” said Senator Draheim. “While we task bus drivers with protecting our children, we all play a role in the safety of our children. Minnesota drivers need to pay attention to our school buses at all times but especially when the stop arms are extended during the morning and afternoon pick-up and drop-off hours.”

“These are our kids we’re talking about,” said Senator Scott Newman (R-Hutchinson), chair of the Senate Transportation Finance and Policy Committee. “There are bright flashing lights, a stop sign, and stop arms extended from school busses when they are picking up or dropping off our kids, but we still have an epidemic of people blowing right past the signs. It has become clear we need to educate Minnesotans on the laws surrounding school busses. Our kids are counting on us.”

Each year, the Department of Public Safety conducts a one-day survey where they request all school bus drivers report how many stop-arm violations they witness on their routes for the day. Over the past five years, DPS has tallied an average of more than 600 violations on that single day, and that’s with fewer than 30 percent of drivers reporting. Taken over 170 school days, there could be more than 100,000 stop-arm violations occurring in Minnesota roadways each school year. 

Over the past three years, between 1,000 and 1,1000 citations were issued annually to drivers who illegally passed a stopped school bus. Convictions numbers are much lower, and over the past decade, only have half of the offenders have received a conviction. Minnesota statute currently classifies stop-arm violations as misdemeanors that carry a fine not less than $500; illegally passing on the passenger side or passing while the arm is out and a child is in the street or on the adjacent sidewalk makes that violation a gross misdemeanor