A school bus stops. Its lights flash and the familiar stop sign flicks out from the driver’s side as children exit or enter the bus. Suddenly a vehicle goes around the bus, either not noticing or simply ignoring the many commands to stop.
It happens more often than people imagine. From January 2023 through February 2024, Portage County Municipal Court recorded 35 violations. Most months held steady with one, two or three incidents, but three — February, March and May 2023 — tallied six to 10 incidents each.
But this is a fraction of the problem, as most violations are difficult to enforce, said school officials interviewed by The Portager. Bus drivers don’t always capture the vehicle information of people who ignore bus stops, and cameras don’t always have a clear view of license plates. Even when bus drivers do file reports, the cases are difficult to prosecute, law enforcement officials said.
Nobody in Portage County has been hurt during any of the recent violations, but there have been crashes involving school buses within the last few years, including in Rootstown and Ravenna.
Enforcing school bus violations
The majority of the school bus-related citations came from the Ohio Highway Patrol, but city police departments and the Portage County Sheriff’s Office can issue citations, as well.
Troopers don’t need to witness the violations. Some school buses are equipped with video, but that recorded evidence is not necessary, said Ohio State Patrol Sgt. Shaun Baskerville.
School bus drivers “have a form and they provide us with date, time, vehicle description, driver description and license plate,” Baskerville said. “When we get those complaints, we follow up and investigate all that information and, if that information is good, we go to that residence and we issue them a citation based on what the bus driver observed.”
Troopers routinely tail school buses during National School Bus Safety Week, which is in October. Other times, an officer actually seeing a violation is more happenstance than anything else.
“The reports we get from bus drivers far outweigh the violations we observe. We’re not always behind a school bus,” Baskerville said.
Simply paying the ticket is not an option. The matter ends up in court, where the bus drivers testify as to what they saw, and the troopers testify as to the information the bus drivers provided.
If a bus driver doesn’t get a plate but notifies the highway patrol that a certain car is habitually ignoring stopped school bus laws, the highway patrol will send a trooper to follow the bus, he said.
The final outcome is anything but certain. What actually happens in court depends on the law, the facts of the case, the prosecutor’s recommendation and the judge’s discretion, said Kent attorney Scott Flynn.
Fines and court costs
Of the 26 citations issued by the Ohio State Patrol from January 2023 through February 2024, six were dismissed, though two were still assessed $117 in court costs, according to court records. Three plea-bargained their way down to a non-moving violation of no headlights, paying $150 in fines and $117 in court costs. One was found not guilty for “no facts,” and four cases are pending.
Of the remainder, fines ranged from zero to $150, plus $117 in court costs and two points on their license.
Court records show that Aurora police issued two stopped school bus violations, one in October 2023 and one in February 2024. Streetsboro police issued four citations, one in March 2023, one in April 2023 and two in February 2024. Kent issued two in 2023: one in January and one in March. And the Portage County Sheriff’s Office issued one in February 2024.
Of the four issued by Streetsboro police, fines ranged from $53 to $63, plus $117 in court costs, with two points on the defendants’ licenses. One case is pending. The one citation issued by the sheriff’s office resulted in an $83 fine, $117 in court costs and two points.
Of the two issued by Kent police, one defendant’s charge was merged with his apparent lack of a driver’s license. He received a $250 fine and $117 in court costs. The other case remains in process.
Perspective from the bus driver’s seat
Waterloo schools Transportation Director Tim Fox doubles as a school bus driver. A 30-year veteran, he’s seen it all.
“Most of the time, when the folks run past our red lights, they pay more attention to their phones and stuff like that than they do to the traffic around them,” he said, adding that he recently saw one driver sail past him with her phone balanced on her steering wheel.
Fox couldn’t say if the driver was texting: He was too busy making sure “his” kids were safe.
Though Waterloo buses are equipped with cameras, Fox said the videos can’t always catch the vehicles’ license plates. Fog, tinted coverings over the plates and the lack of front license plates all combine to obscure what the cameras can see, and bus drivers are often more focused on their riders’ safety than they are on license plates, he said.
About twice a month they fill out the necessary forms and get them to Ohio State Patrol, he said. So far, no one’s been hurt.
Jim Soyars, director of business services for Kent schools, said he is glad the issue is getting attention.
“We stop and we’ve got the stop arm out and the red lights out on the front and back of the bus, and people drive right through,” he said, adding that some incidents never get reported. “A lot of times, the drivers are focusing on the kids and they don’t get the details.”
Even so, the Kent schools submitted 28 reports to the state highway patrol during the 2022-23 academic year, and another 11 through February 2024, he said.
Though police follow up on every report, few of the cases make it to court.
Aurora police Chief Brian Byard said identifying the driver may be impossible if the vehicle turns out to be a company car. No license plate number or incomplete license plate information may lead to another dead end, he said, agreeing with Fox that onboard cameras aren’t always helpful.
“We need credible evidence to prosecute a case,” Byard said. “It’s not what we know; it’s what we can prove.”
Christine Wingler, assistant transportation supervisor for Aurora schools, said school bus drivers report more incidents on main roads such as routes 82 and 43 than in the city’s residential developments.
Last year, the district reported 11 incidents to Aurora police, Wingler said. One resulted in a $33 fine, $117 in court costs and two points on the driver’s license. Another remains in process.
To dissuade motorists from flouting stopped school bus laws, Byard said Aurora police sometimes ride the buses themselves or follow them in their squad cars. If a bus driver reports an incident occurring at a specific time and place, Byard may position an officer at that spot in hopes of catching what very well might be a repeat offender, he said.
“Sometimes it just results in us educating them, but in the event that we can prove that somebody blatantly passed a school bus, we have zero tolerance for it,” Byard said.
Correction: In a previous version of this article, a source misstated Ohio laws regarding four-lane highways. If a bus stops on a four-lane highway, drivers coming in the opposite direction do not need to stop.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.