Videos help keep motorists compliant and students safe as school starts next week

With students set to return to class Tuesday, Greater Jasper School Corporation officials are asking motorists to relearn a habit many haven’t practiced in months: stopping for school buses.

Assistant Superintendent of Student Support Services Ryan Erny is the star of several videos highlighting the laws regarding stop arms and buses as well as reminders for students to be safe at school bus pickup and dropoff points.

The goal is to educate everyone to ensure students remain safe and motorists understand the laws.

For motorists, it is important to understand that when they see those amber lights start flashing, the bus is preparing to stop. Once the stop arm goes out, it is illegal to pass that bus in either traffic lane.

Erny said drivers are trained to give motorists adequate time to react rather than extending the stop arm at the last second.

“Once motorists see those amber lights, we really need them to start slowing down because that bus is going to be stopping,” he said.

Erny pointed to Newton Street as a recurring trouble spot because of its width and center turn lane. Drivers sometimes assume that because a bus is stopped on the far side of the road, with a turn lane in between, they don’t need to stop.

That assumption is wrong, he said. Under Indiana law, a center turn lane does not count as a physical median or divider. Only a true divided highway — one separated by a raised median or other permanent barrier — exempts oncoming traffic from stopping. Without that kind of separation, all vehicles in both directions must stop when a bus’s red lights and stop arm are activated.

“That’s kind of one I think people maybe kind of miss,” Erny said. “There’s enough space, I don’t need to stop” is a misconception that shows up often.

To help with enforcement, every bus in the fleet is equipped with a stop-arm camera, Erny said, and video from potential violations is forwarded to school resource officers for potential prosecution. The corporation issued 57 stop-arm citations last year through the Jasper Police Department.

The corporation’s goal with the footage, Erny said, is less about punishment and more about public education — particularly at the start of the school year, when buses return to roads after a summer largely without them.

With classes resuming Tuesday, Erny asked drivers and families alike to stay alert, especially during morning drop-off, when students may be waiting near roadways.