60-6,175 School bus; safety requirements; use of stop signal arm; use of warning signal lights; violations; penalty. - Nebraska Statutes

60-6,175. School bus; safety requirements; use of stop signal arm; use of warning signal lights; violations; penalty.(1) Upon meeting or overtaking, from the front or rear, any school bus on which the stop warning signal lights are flashing, the driver of a motor vehicle shall reduce the speed of such vehicle to not more than twenty-five miles per hour, shall bring such vehicle to a complete stop when the school bus stop signal arm is extended, and shall remain stopped until the stop signal arm is retracted and the school bus resumes motion or until signaled by the bus driver to proceed. This section shall not apply to approaching traffic in the opposite direction on a divided highway or to approaching traffic when there is displayed a sign as provided in subsection (7) of this section directing traffic to proceed. Any person violating this subsection shall be guilty of a Class IV misdemeanor.(2) Except as provided in subsection (7) of this section, the driver of any school bus, when stopping to receive or discharge pupils, shall turn on flashing stop warning signal lights at a distance of not less than three hundred feet when inside the corporate limits of any city or village and not less than five hundred feet nor more than one thousand feet in any area outside the corporate limits of any city or village from the point where such pupils are to be received or discharged from the bus. At the point of receiving or discharging pupils, the bus driver shall bring the school bus to a stop and extend a stop signal arm. After receiving or discharging pupils, the bus driver shall turn off the flashing stop warning signal lights, retract the stop signal arm, and then proceed on the route. No school bus shall stop to load or unload pupils unless there is at least four hundred feet of clear vision in each direction of travel.(3) All pupils shall be received and discharged from the right front entrance of every school bus. If such pupils must cross a roadway, the bus driver shall instruct such pupils to cross in front of the school bus and the bus driver shall keep such school bus halted with the flashing stop warning signal lights turned on and the stop signal arm extended until such pupils have reached the opposite side of such roadway.(4) The driver of a vehicle upon a divided highway need not stop upon meeting or passing a school bus which is on a different roadway or when upon a freeway and such 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.(5) Every school bus shall bear upon the front and rear thereof plainly visible signs containing the words school bus in letters not less than eight inches high.(6) When a school bus is being operated upon a highway for purposes other than the actual transportation of children either to or from school, all markings thereon indicating school bus shall be covered or concealed. The stop signal arm and system of alternately flashing stop warning signal lights shall not be operable through the usual controls.(7) When a school bus is (a) parked in a designated school bus loading area which is out of the flow of traffic and which is adjacent to a school site or (b) parked on a roadway which possesses more than one lane of traffic flowing in the same direction and which is adjacent to a school site, the bus driver shall engage only the flashing stop warning signal lights when receiving or discharging pupils if a school bus loading area warning sign is displayed. Such signs shall not be directly attached to any school bus but shall be free standing and placed at the rear of a parked school bus or line of parked school buses. No school district shall utilize a school bus loading area warning sign unless such sign complies with the requirements of section 60-6,176. SourceLaws 1973, LB 45, § 60; Laws 1974, LB 863, § 2; Laws 1977, LB 41, § 11; Laws 1987, LB 347, § 1; R.S.1943, (1988), § 39-660; Laws 1993, LB 370, § 271; Laws 1993, LB 575, § 10.