As a part of National School Bus Safety month, Wichita Police Officers will be riding school buses in April, looking for drivers who put children’s safety at risk by disobeying traffic laws.
“We have received many, many complaints throughout the city of drivers disregarding the stop signs on buses and carelessly passing when children are loading and unloading,” said Sergeant Donnie Phelps, Patrol South Bureau.
As a response to the complaints, Traffic Officer Lenny Rose conducted a survey of area school bus drivers. He collected the results, analyzed the data, and identified certain trends. He was able to identify which bus routes are likely to experience the most violations, on what days, and at what time.
After having identified at risk school buses by utilizing Officer Rose’s data, on April 14 and 15, Wichita Police Officers will be riding select school buses in order to enforce the traffic laws against those fail to stop for school buses. The school district is sending letters to the parents of the children who ride the buses to make them aware of why Officers are riding on the buses.
Any time a school bus is stopped and the red stop sign on the side of the bus is extended, drivers traveling in both directions must stop and wait until the sign is retracted before proceeding.
A Police Officer will be on the bus monitoring drivers and will radio any violations to patrol cars in the area who will pull the violators over and issue a citation. The fine and court costs for failure to stop for a school bus is $138.
For more information, please contact Sgt. Donnie Phelps at 337-9200.