Do you have to stop for a school bus in Florida?

In the first two weeks of school, approximately 11,500 Miami-Dade County drivers were cited after footage captured from 950 school district buses caught them disobeying traffic laws.

The cameras were authorized last year to add extra protections for students getting on and off buses during the school year. While laws already exist to ensure drivers who violate these laws are held accountable, the cameras were installed to reinforce the matter. The initiative is a collaboration between the local school district, the Miami-Dade Police Department and BusPatrol, a private company with programs in 17 states that manages the buses and the technology that captures the license plates of cars that illegally pass buses with deployed stop signals.

Reporting from The Miami Herald shows that there have been about 1,600 citations issued per school day, equaling about $2.5 million in fines. Typically the citations issued would be paid to the Clerk of Court from the drivers, but the fines issued from the new cameras will go directly back into funding the continuation of the program.

Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) shows that approximately 100 school-aged children, meaning kids from 5 to 18 years old, were killed in school-transportation-related incidents in recent years. Many of these incidents occurred when the students were embarking and disembarking from the bus. NHTSA numbers also show that buses all over the country are illegally passed an estimated 43.5 million times during the school year.

Florida Law

The law regarding school buses in Florida is clear – if you are in an approaching vehicle and see a bus displaying its lights and stop signals, you must stop. If you do not stop, you are guilty of a moving violation and may be cited. If the bus is on a divided highway with a divided highway with an unpaved space of at least 5 feet, a raised median, or a physical barrier is not required to stop if going in the opposite direction of the bus.

Bus drivers must stop as far right as possible and display their stop signals and lights before allowing students to get on or off the bus. When feasible, a bus should not stop where there is low visibility for a distance of 200 feet away from the bus in either direction.

Leesfield & Partners

With over four decades of experience handling crash cases and their fallout for injured clients and grieving families, Leesfield & Partners understands the importance of road safety. In addition to its legal work over the years in Key West, Orlando and Miami, Leesfield & Partners has directly supported the charitable foundation of its Founder and Managing Partner, Ira Leesfield. Through his public safety advocacy work with The Leesfield Family Foundation, Mr. Leesfield earned a spot on The Friends of The Underline Board of Directors to help the organization champion pedestrian and bicyclist safety measures within the bustling city.

One Leesfield & Partners case involves a young boy attempting to get on a school bus when he was struck by a speeding driver. The boy was airlifted to the hospital and was diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries.

In that incident, the speeding car driver and the bus driver were found to be at fault for the boy’s severe injuries. Not only did the bus driver not stop in the correct lane, but she also did not wait for traffic ahead of her to clear before displaying her lights and stop signals and instructing the students to cross the street with low visibility.

The case was handled by Partner and Trial Lawyer, Justin B. Shapiro who secured a confidential settlement that was a multiple of the at-fault driver’s insurance coverage.

Other pedestrians represented by Leesfield & Partners attorneys over the years include a young mother who was visiting Fort Myers with her family when she was crushed by a pickup truck while trying to cross the street. The driver claimed to not have seen the woman. Attorneys with the firm secured an $8.5 million recovery for the family for automobile injuries following a $27 million arbitration award.

Another woman crossing the street on a marked crosswalk while on a break from work when she was hit by a pickup driver making an illegal left turn. The woman sustained skull fractures and brain hemorrhages as a result of the traumatic crash which also saw the truck go over her left leg and body. Mr. Shapiro, who was also the lawyer in that case, secured the maximum amount of $6 million for the injured client.

Other pedestrian-involved incidents handled by Leesfield & Partners attorneys total over $5.5 million in combined recoveries for injured clients and their family members.