Classes resume soon and with that brings more foot traffic and school buses operating, so when you’re driving be cognisant of added traffic in the mornings and afternoons. Washington Community School District Transportation Director Woody Harden says when you’re driving and you see a bus with its flashing yellow lights on then you need to slow down and prepare to stop. If red lights are activated and the bus’s stop sign is extended then you need to stop. Harden says there’s some confusion around three-lane areas, “So on three-lane traffic, like what we have between South 2nd and all the way clear out to 250th Street, some people get confused. And they think if they see a bus stop there with the stop arm extended, since it’s three lanes, that they don’t have to stop. But in reality they do have to stop. That turning lane doesn’t eliminate the need to stop. So, on those three-lane sections of town if there’s a bus stopped there with red lights activated and the stop arm extended, people need to be stopping, and be prepared to stop if they see that bus with the yellows on.”

When students need to cross the street after exiting their bus, they should look to the driver for a signal and always cross in front of the bus.

Harden adds that now is a good time for parents to talk to their children about proper behavior on school buses and at bus stops, including no horseplay near the road.