Sheriff Ivy Woods wants to remind all driver’s that the Louisiana Law states; The driver of a vehicle upon a highway meeting or overtaking from any direction any school bus that has stopped for the purpose of receiving or discharging any school children shall stop the vehicle not less than thirty feet from the school bus before reaching such school bus when there are in operation on said school bus visual signals as required by R.S. 32:318, and said driver shall not proceed until such bus resumes motion or the visual signals are no longer activated.

The Jeff Davis Sheriff’s office recently received four complaints of driver’s failing to yield and stop for buses that are stopped and loading or unloading children.  Two complaints were in the Lacassine area and two in the Jennings area. 

“Sheriff Woods warns violators, passing a stopped school bus is dangerous and ILLEGAL! “. “Our children are precious and we don’t want anyone to be harmed, driver’s passing a stopped school bus, loading or unloading puts our children at risk of serious injury or death, Woods advised.”

The yellow and red signal lamps and the Stop signs on the bus are traffic controls, just as Stop signs and Red lights at intersections.  You must obey them.  We have ticketed two driver’s this month, and we will continue to enforce this violation aggressively, to keep our children safe!

The law states; Any person who is found guilty of or pleads guilty or nolo contendere to a violation of the provisions of this Subsection shall be subject to the following penalties:

(i) If the violation does not result in the injury, serious bodily injury, or death of another person, the offender shall be fined not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars or imprisoned for not more than six months, or both, in accordance with the provisions of R.S. 32:398.2 and shall have his driver's license suspended in accordance with the provisions of R.S. 32:414(A)(2).

(iii) If the violation results in the serious bodily injury of another person, the offender shall be fined not less than five hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars and may be subjected to a driver's license suspension of a period up to one hundred eighty days, or both.

The ONLY exception allowed is when the driver of a vehicle upon a highway with separate roadways( that means divided by a median, concrete divider or fences), need not stop upon meeting or passing a school bus which is on a different roadway or when upon a controlled access highway and the school bus is stopped in a loading zone which is a part of or adjacent to such highway and where pedestrians are not permitted to cross the roadway.