(a) The driver of a vehicle upon meeting or overtaking from either direction any school bus stopped for the purpose of receiving or discharging any school child or person attending programs offered by community boards of mental health and county boards of mental retardation and development disabilities shall stop at least ten feet from the front or rear of the school bus and shall not proceed until such school bus resumes motion, or until signaled by the school bus driver to proceed.
It is no defense to a charge under this subsection (a) hereof that the school bus involved failed to display or be equipped with an automatically extended stop warning sign as required by subsection (b) hereof.
(Ord. 392-86. Passed 6-3-86.)
(b) Every school bus shall be equipped with amber and red visual signals meeting the requirements of Ohio R.C. 4511.771, and an automatically extended stop warning sign of a type approved by the State Board of Education, which shall be actuated by the driver of the bus whenever but only whenever the bus is stopped or stopping on the roadway for the purpose of receiving or discharging school children or persons attending programs offered by community boards of mental health and County boards of mental retardation and developmental disabilities. The requirement of this section for school buses to be equipped with amber visual signs and an automatically extended stop warning sign shall apply to all new school buses contracted for on or after June 1, 1979, and to all other school buses on and after August 1, 1980, except that no school district shall be required to equip school buses that have been purchased without such equipment prior to March 15, 1979, unless Federal funds are made available by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Safety for this purpose. A school bus driver shall not actuate the visual signs or the stop warning sign in designated school bus loading areas where the bus is entirely off the roadway or at school buildings when children or persons attending programs offered by community boards of mental health and County boards of mental retardation and developmental disabilities are loading or unloading at curbside. The visual signs and stop warning sign shall be synchronized or otherwise operated as required by rule of the Board.
(c) Where a highway has been divided into four or more traffic lanes, a driver of a vehicle need not stop for a school bus approaching from the opposite direction which has stopped for the purpose of receiving or discharging any school child or persons attending programs offered by community boards of mental health and County boards of mental retardation and developmental disabilities. The driver of any vehicle overtaking the school bus shall comply with subsection (a) hereof.
(d) School buses operating on divided highways or on highways with four or more traffic lanes shall receive and discharge all school children or persons attending programs offered by community boards of mental health and County boards of mental retardation and developmental disabilities on their residence side of the highway.
(e) No school bus driver shall start his bus until after any child or person attending programs offered by community boards of mental health and County boards of mental retardation and developmental disabilities who may have alighted therefrom has reached a place of safety on his residence side of the road.
(ORC 4511.75; Ord. 133-86. Passed 2-25-86.)