2010 House Bill 6233: Increase school bus passing violation penalties

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Introduced by Rep. Tom McMillin (R) on June 1, 2010, to extend the same enhanced penalties that apply to traffic violations in a school zone or a highway work zone to violations of the rules for stopping when a school bus is stopped.
- Referred to the House Transportation Committee on June 1, 2010.

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1) Re: 2010 House Bill 6233 (Increase school bus passing violation penalties ) by FreeSpeaker on June 9, 2010

I agree with MTH.

What always vexes me about bills like this is that they do not provide a means to fund more vigorous and rigorous enforcement. Without enforcement, increased penalties are all but meaningless (except to the few hapless schnooks who get caught virtually by accident).

Another way of looking at this is, increased penalties are far less an incentive to abide the law than is increased certainty of getting caught in violation, and punished for it. The latter only comes from stepped-up enforcement.

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2) Re: 2010 House Bill 6233 (Increase school bus passing violation penalties ) by MTH on June 8, 2010

YES !!!!!!! SUPER !!!!!!

However ...... The one major failing of enforcement on school bus passing isn't the law or the penalty. It's the catching. The number of citations issued and convictions is woefully small.

This is more of a PR move in the end. There will be news stories, articles, postings, ranting and raving and in the end the number of vehicles passing school buses will be the same.

2 fixes :

1) Prosecutors - realize that a bus driver who fills out a legit complaint form and can ID the vehicle that passed the bus IS GROUNDS for a citation and conviction. Read the law, an officer does not have to witness this for the registered owner of the vehicle to be given a ticket.

2) Bus Drivers - Do your bus stops legally and correctly. Surprise on that one ? On a regular basis I witness school bus stops being performed illegally or not in compliance with the procedures. Yes there are quite a few variables now, especially in light of "hazard stops" and such, but if we don't do our part, we have no basis for complaint that a bus gets passed while the red lights are on.

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3) 2010 House Bill 6233 (Increase school bus passing violation penalties ) by admin on January 1, 2001
Introduced in the House on June 1, 2010

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