You can’t miss them. Yellow school buses are one of the most visible vehicles on the roadway. Even though they obviously carry students of all ages, who board and disembark throughout each day, some motorists remain unaware of the rules of the road concerning school buses.

“It’s an ongoing problem whether you are in Minot or Atlanta, Georgia,” said Barry Brooks, Minot Public Schools director of transportation. “More kids are killed or injured outside a school bus than inside.”

There is what is considered a “danger zone” around every school bus, 10 feet on the front, rear and sides of the bus where a bus driver cannot see. In addition, there’s the danger presented by vehicles approaching or passing school buses, even though school buses are equipped with arms that swing out from the side of the bus. The arms display a stop sign and flashing, red lights.

“That’s one of the biggest dangers in school busing,” stated Brooks. “Cars come from the back and go around a bus and kids get run over, or they come from the opposite direction and run through when red lights are flashing.”

Sometimes, depending on the location and situation, a school bus driver will turn on yellow flashing lights. The meaning of the lights is quite simple, said Brooks, “Red means stop and yellow means caution. With the yellow a person can pass but with caution.”

Brooks oversees operation of 16 buses that run regularly in Minot throughout each day. Buses are used to shuttle students back and forth from Magic City Campus to Central Campus every school period of every day. There’s also buses in use during the noon hour. Add on field trips and extracurricular activities and it’s almost assured that a motorist will encounter a yellow school bus in the city.

“Fortunately we’ve never had an injury from people running red,” said Brooks, who has been with Minot Public Schools for 23 years. “We have had people run our red lights in town though.”

Recently a Minot man was found guilty in Municipal Court of “passing a school bus.” The result was a $100 fine, six points assessed against his driver’s license and completion of a defensive driving course. State law says a driver under the age of 18 will have their driver’s license canceled with a penalty of 6 points, one of the highest point penalties possible for a traffic violation. Drivers over the age of 18 have their license suspended when reaching 12 points.

Motorists who commit driving violations around school buses in Minot will likely be caught, even if there is no law enforcement nearby to witness the act.

“What we do to combat it is, we have a camera underneath those stop arms on the bus so we can at least get a license number and turn that in to the police,” said Brooks.