Three thousand drivers, ages 16 to over 65, completed the unsafe driving survey. The National Survey of Speeding and Other Unsafe Driving Actions was commissioned by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Passing a stopped school bus was considered to be more dangerous than any other unsafe driving behavior, more dangerous even than racing another driver, driving through a stop sign or red light, crossing railroad tracks with red lights blinking, passing in a no-passing zone, and speeding. Yet, in a 1997 survey on speeding and other unsafe driving behaviors, 99 percent of the drivers interviewed felt that the most dangerous unsafe driving behavior was passing a school bus with its lights flashing and stop arm extended. The act of illegally passing a stopped school bus with red lights flashing is commonly known as a "stop-arm violation." This refers to the stop-sign shaped "arm" that extends from the left side of the bus when the red lights are activated. Motorists want to get where they are going, with little interruption and as quickly as they can.
By law, when a school bus stops to drop off or pick up students, motorists must stop too. School buses make frequent stops to load and unload students. In all that time there has been an uneasy coexistence between school buses and motorists. Although yellow wasn't adopted as the school bus color until 1939, school buses have been around since 1915, about as long as the automobile. Both have been part of the morning and afternoon landscape for five generations of school children. The school bus driver looks at the traffic behind her and in front of her and thinks, "Will anyone try to pass?" Seven or eight elementary school students are waiting near the curb. The big yellow school bus approaches the intersection of First and Main.
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