BRODHEAD — School buses will be making their rounds and children will be walking on the roads in the coming days.
The first day of school for Brodhead, Albany and Parkview (Orfordville) is Sept. 4, but Kobussen school bus drivers will hit the road ahead of time to prepare families for school bus riding safety.
Kobussen school buses will be noticed in Brodhead, Albany and Orfordville as school bus drivers practice driving their routes starting Aug. 27. Kobussen drivers will run their assigned routes during actual drive times in the mornings and afternoons on Aug. 30 and will use both the flashing yellow lights and flashing red lights as the buses come to stops.
According to Drew Burns, Brodhead terminal manager for Kobussen, this practice will help prepare motorists for the start of the school year by reminding them that school buses and children will be on our streets again.
Flashing yellow lights will be activated as the bus slows to a stop to load or unload passengers and alerts to other motorists whenever a school bus is preparing to stop in traffic and will start flashing about 300 feet before a bus stops. Burns hopes to remind motorist that once the yellow lights are on, they should slow down and pass carefully. If the motorist sees red flashing lights, thy should stop 20 feet away from the bus. Once the bus stops, the red lights will flash and will continue flashing during loading and unloading of riders. There is no passing when red lights are flashing.
Wisconsin state law prohibits motorists from passing whenever a school bus has stopped in traffic with its red lights flashing. The flashing yellow lights do not require a motorist to stop, but they are designed as an early-warning system
According to Lt. Karl Mittelstadt of the Wisconsin Highway Patrol, if a vehicle does not stop for a school bus displaying its red warning lights, the penalty is $326 and four points will be assessed to the drivers driving record.
Despite having about 13,500 school buses on the road statewide, Wisconsin has not recorded a fatality in 10 years with a passenger loading or unloading, according to Mittelstadt. He agreed that the lighting system does a good job of alerting other motorists to a bus driver’s movements.
