(1) “School bus” means every motor vehicle designed for carrying more than five passengers which is owned by a public, private or governmental agency or institution of learning and operated for the transportation of children to or from a school session or function, or owned by a private person and operated for compensation for the transportation of children to or from a school session or school function, or operated to transport persons attending programs offered by community boards of mental health and County boards of mental retardation and developmental disabilities.
(2) “Children's bus” means every motor vehicle, other than a school bus, designed for carrying more than five passengers operated for the transportation of children to or from children's camps, nursery schools, instruction classes, Y.M.C.A. camps or centers, or other places where children congregate for instruction, health care, recreation or entertainment.
(3) “School bus or children's bus bearing the prescribed warning marking” means a school bus or children's bus which is painted national school bus chrome number two and is marked, or bears a sign on a background of national school bus chrome number two, on both front and rear with the words “school bus”, “camp bus”, “children's bus”, “Y.M.C.A. bus” or other similar designation indicating that such bus normally transports children, in black lettering not less than eight inches in height, and on the rear of the bus with the word “stop” in black lettering not less than ten inches in height.
(4) “Vehicle” means every device in, upon or by which any person or property may be transported or drawn upon a highway, road, street, alley or public way, except devices, other than bicycles, moved by human power.
(b) Stopping for School Buses and Children's Buses.
(1) The driver of a vehicle upon a highway, street, road, alley or public way within the City shall upon meeting or overtaking from either direction any school bus or children's bus bearing the prescribed warning markings which has stopped on the public roadway or berm thereof for the purpose of receiving or discharging passengers, and on which there are not less than two red or amber flashing lights then operating on the end of the bus toward which the driver of the vehicle is approaching shall stop the vehicle prior to reaching and not less than ten feet from such bus and shall remain so stopped and shall not proceed until such bus resumes motion or until signaled by the driver of such bus to proceed.
(2) Where the roadway or bean on which the school bus or children's bus is stopped is part of a road which is divided into two roadways by an intervening unpaved space or barrier constructed so as to physically impede vehicular traffic from crossing from one portion of the roadway to the other, the driver of a vehicle proceeding on the portion of the roadway opposite the portion thereof upon which such school bus or children's bus is stopped, need not stop or remain stopped under the provisions of this section.
(3) Where the school bus or children's bus is stopped on a roadway or berm thereof which roadway has four or more traffic lanes, the driver of a motor vehicle proceeding in a direction opposite to that of such bus need not stop or remain stopped under the provisions of this section.
(4) When the school bus or children's bus is stopped within 100 feet of an intersection where traffic in all directions is alternately directed to stop by a traffic control signal then so operating, the driver of a vehicle entering such intersection from a direction other than that of such bus need not stop or remain stopped under the provisions of this section.
(5) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to permit any conduct prohibited by the laws of the State or any ordinance of the City.
(6) It is no defense to a charge under this subsection (b) that the school bus involved failed to display or be equipped with an automatically extended stop warning sign as required by Section 331.39(m) hereof.
(c) Prohibiting Misleading Markings. No person who is the owner of a motor vehicle designed for carrying more than five passengers which is used or is to be used exclusively for purposes other than as a school bus or children's bus, shall operate it or permit it to be operated within the City unless it has been painted a color different from national school bus chrome number two and painted in such a way that the words “stop” and “school bus”, “camp bus” or similar words referred to in subsection (a) hereof are obliterated.
(d) Penalty.
(1) Whoever violates subsection (b) of this section may be fined an amount not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500.00). A person who is issued a citation for a violation of subsection (b) of this section is not permitted to enter a written plea of guilty and waive the person’s right to contest the citation in a trial but must instead appear in person in the proper court to answer the charge.
(2) In addition to and independent of any other penalty provided by law, the court may impose upon an offender who violates this section a class seven suspension of the driver’s license, commercial driver’s license, temporary instruction permit, probationary license, or nonresident operating privileges from the range specified in Ohio R.C. 4510.02(A)(7). When a license is suspended under this section, the court shall cause the offender to deliver the license to the court, and the Clerk of Court immediately shall forward the license to the Registrar of Motor Vehicles, together with notice of the court’s action.
(Ord. 62-76. Passed 12-5-62; Ord. 2011-5. Passed 3-15-11.)