Am I going to get a ticket from this bus?

Friendly Stranger..

Well here is the thing to note. You did break the law. The law does state that you must stop whenever a school bus is stopped and waiting for children to enter the bus or leave the bus. That is just a pre-caution for children. As it stands, I would say you don't have anything to worry about. The only way you would be ticketed is if any police in the area saw you. Usually the police will ticket you for an offense like this. Secondly, the only way you would be reported is if she wrote your license number down. She only beeped to let you know that you were wrong in continuing to proceed. But if you receive a ticket in the mail which is unlikely, just be prepared to pay it. I wouldn't be overly concerned about it, but what it does say is that you have a good heart because you want to do the right thing.

Big T

you are worried way to much about this issue. you will not get a ticket if you weren't pulled over. writing the letter was probably too much. calm down some.

wvparanormal

It's hard to understand exactly what you mean by" so I wrote a simplified version of the story and told them to call me back". If that means you wrote them a letter..........

Writing a letter was about the dumbest thing in the world you could have done. The bus driver would have to have super vision in order to get your license plate number, if everything happened as you say. But now that you have written a letter, you have not only told them who you are, but you have admitted guilt in breaking the law, in writing.

If that's not what you meant, don't worry about it. It happens all the time to school buses and they don't waste time reporting it unless they have your license number and as I said, chances of that are slim to none.

As you are a new driver, the best advice I can give you is, when you see a school bus on the road and it is during the normal hours for school or school buses to be picking up or dropping off kids, anticipate that the bus is going to stop and be prepared to stop. If it doesn't stop, no big deal, you slowed down a bit. If it does stop, you will be able to stop and just maybe not kill a kid.

Bunker

As you said you had no time to stop. Slamming on your brakes could cause the vehicle behind you to hit you and cause serious injury. The bus driver is suppose to pull to the right side with yellow flashing lights and stop completely. Then they go to red flashing lights and then the red stop sign. The bus driver should also check traffic and make sure it's safe before the stop sign is swung out.

Rapid Fire

Procedural error on behalf of the bus driver. There is a set of flashers that are supposed to be activated to warn traffic that the bus is about to stop. These flasher activate before the stop arm comes out. A secondary set of flashers go off when the stop arm comes out. The bus driver is not to activate the second set of flashers and stop arm until they are sure that opposing traffic can stop in time. They are not to activate these flashers in such a way as to cause traffic to have to come to a panic stop. What has happened is that the bus driver forgot to arm the system and did not realize the mistake until the bus stopped. She then armed the system and hit the flashers at the same time leaving you no room to stop safely.

Print this off and take it with you if they send you a ticket. Most courts are not aware of how the flasher system works.

They don't stop you at the time of the offence unless there is a Police car at the scene. The bus drivers carry forms in the bus that they turn over to the Police for action when this occurs.

By rights, you should have been paying closer attention though. You should be aware that a school bus can stop at any time and may be taking on or discharging students when it does.

ishootbirds2

don't call the bus company, its inviting trouble. if they haven't called you to court yet, then there is nothing to be worried about.

also, increase your following distance, if you follow a bus then make sure you can out stop the bus no matter what speed you're going at. then you won't be forced to go around to avoid a rear-ending.

of course if the driver inexplicably stops dead from like 55 mph without reason (like on a road without any houses directly leading to it), i suppose you can honk your horn and go around the bus to avoid a collision. Generally stopping like that is considered reckless driving, doing actions that are unexpected and without reason that is likely ot cause a collision or traffic accident.

I had to avoid a similar car (not bus) that couldn't make up their mind on a yellow light. The light turned yellow, they speed up to make the light. (I didn't think it was necessary to do so) I continued to follow them thru the light when they slammed on the brakes too close to stop before the limit line (less than 50 feet away from the limit line at 55 mph); they ended in the middle of the intersection. The braking was so hard their wheels locked and left black skid marks. I could not outstop the car, my van weighs 3x more and physics states that is not possible. So I was forced to do an illegal lane change in an intersection to avoid a 55 mph rear ending. I was following at about 80 yards when that occurred.

Turtle 6

More than likely not --

Technically, the bus driver was in the wrong for not activating the system in time.

previous answerers take note -- the individual was APPROACHING the bus, not FOLLOWING.

the lock man

if u couldnt stop in time- u were following to close-yes youll probally be seeing a ticket..unless she didnt get your plate..next time back off a lil

Pappy

Chances are you are not going to get a ticket! BUT you were following to close! If you didn't have time to stop it makes no difference if she stopped quickly! I have been hit in the rear 2 times by people following to close and my daughter was in a car that rear ended a school bus that the driver of the car she was in claimed the buus stopped too quick. All three of those drivers were ticketed. You were lucky, back off and get the space you need to stop safely. You would really feel bad if that driver had stopped to avoid a child that had run in front of him but you went around and hit the child.

jgentis

The bus driver is always right, that's why they paint them BRIGHT YELLOW you should always be ready to stop! You were in the wrong pay attention! Those are somebody's babies riding that bus! And you would feel like crap if you killed one of them.

P.S. Brakes is spelled brakes not breaks as in spring

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