Robbinsville – Operation Stop Arm, a N.C. State Highway Patrol campaign to increase awareness of the dangers of ignoring school bus stop arms, increased traffic patrols in school zones, around school buses and at school bus stops Monday. The initiative lasts until Friday.
“Every day of the program, we usually have the Highway Patrol following school buses on their daily travels and most of the time we have High Patrol Officers on board at least one bus,” said Graham County School Transportation Director Chris McClung said.
McClung also pointed out the N.C. Department of Public Safety has equipped Graham County school buses with camera and telemetry systems, which is “one of our better tools we have here at Graham County Schools.”
Public schools in our state have collected statistics on stop arm violations for twenty years and the numbers reveal a persistent problem.
With more than 14,000 school buses on North Carolina roads every weekday, transporting more than 800,000 schoolchildren, the department reports, “On an average school day in North Carolina, nearly 3,000 motorists disregard school bus stop arms.”
On any two-lane road, all traffic must stop from every direction when a school bus arm is deployed and/or school bus lights are flashing. On a four-lane highway, both lanes of traffic must come to a halt behind a stopped school bus. Only on a four-lane highway is oncoming traffic not required to stop.
“The potential for fatal accidents exists every day,” according to the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services. “Drivers who ignore flashing lights and extended stop arms are gambling with children’s lives.”
The danger was made evident during the six months between Aug. 2018 and March of this year, when 12 students were killed and 47 injured while boarding or exiting school buses in the United States.
Last October, an Indiana woman killed three children in one family and injured another child when she ignored the flashing lights and stop arm of a school bus on a rural road.
The driver is currently on trial on charges of reckless homicide and passing a school bus.
“Every child should be afforded a safe means of travel as they attend their respective educational institution,” said Colonel Glenn McNeill Jr., commander of the N.C. State Highway Patrol. “While this operation is scheduled to conclude on Friday, our efforts will continue throughout the school year.”