BRODHEAD — School buses will be making their rounds and students will be walking on the roads starting Monday, Aug. 26.
The first day of school for Brodhead, Albany and Parkview (Orfordville) is Tuesday, Sept. 3 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 Monday, Aug. 26. Kobussen bus drivers will run their assigned routes during actual drive times in the mornings and afternoons Thursday, Aug. 29 and will use both the flashing yellow lights and flashing red lights as the buses come to the stops.
Drew Burns, Brodhead terminal manager for Kobussen says this practice will help prepare the 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.
“Once you see those yellow lights come on, motorists should to slow down and may pass carefully,” Burns said. “But if you see red flashing lights, you are to stop 20 feet away from the bus.” Once the bus stops, the red lights will flash and continue flashing during the loading or unloading of riders.
“No passing when the red lights are flashing,” Burns said.
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
Lieutenant Karl Mittelstadt of the Wisconsin Highway Patrol states 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.
“The penalty is small compared to what could happen if a child gets injured or killed due to somebody not adhering to the red warning lights,” Mittlestadt said.
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, Mittelstadt said. He agreed that the lighting system does a good job of alerting other motorists to a bus driver’s movements. “The requirements are simple: proceed with caution when yellow lights are flashing and stop on flashing red lights,” he said.