I'm posting here in case someone out there has received a ticket for passing a stopped school bus and they may be not guilty and not know it. This involves a ticket for doing so back in March 2014, in North Carolina. My case was finally heard this past Friday (1/9/15). My atty had THREE other clients that had received a ticket at the same location at about the same time, and for the same offense by the same deputy sheriff. If my lawyer had 4 clients, no telling how many others in this county of 360,000 were similarly charged. Anyway, here's the story...
It was a 4-lane highway, sort of. It was in that area where a center turn lane had ended and the center road section had a cross-hatch pattern that was gradually diminishing in size. At the point where the bus had stopped it was 7 feet wide. I was meeting the bus and was in the outer lane. The bus was in the opposing outer lane, stopped, with its stop sign out and red lights flashing. It was raining, hard. I have an excuse of why I didn't see the bus with its red lights flashing (until it was too late), but that counts for exactly nothing. The deputy had this location staked out and saw everything and gave me a ticket. I also had a record of what happened in my dash cam, which I used later to pinpoint the exact location of where the bus had stopped. In the attached photo the bus is shown exactly where it had stopped and the car in the oncoming lane represents my car where it was when passing the bus. As I drove home I had no doubt that I was guilty, and knew there would be a hefty fine and a huge increase in my insurance. When I got home I looked up the NC law concerning passing a school bus, and found this:
"...the driver of a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction from the school bus, upon any road, highway or city street that has been divided into two roadways, so constructed as to separate vehicular traffic between the two roadways by an intervening space (including a center lane for left turns if the roadway consists of at least four more lanes) or by a physical barrier, need not stop upon meeting and passing any school bus that has stopped in the roadway across the dividing space or physical barrier."
That cross-hatch pattern in the middle of the road is called a "median island" by the NC DOT, and to me it certainly looked like an "intervening space". The judge agreed, and evidently so does the local school principal, who does not allow that bus to offload this child in the afternoons when the bus is traveling in the opposite direction and causing him to have to cross this 4 1/2 lane highway. The judge had us four to stand, and told us that the state erred in charging us with a violation and we were free to go.
(I can't get the link to the photo to work when I try "Preview Post", but it works for other sites. Oh well... hope it does work when posted.)
Edit: It doesn't, so try clicking this link if you want to see it:
http://ift.tt/14wUlHR
It was a 4-lane highway, sort of. It was in that area where a center turn lane had ended and the center road section had a cross-hatch pattern that was gradually diminishing in size. At the point where the bus had stopped it was 7 feet wide. I was meeting the bus and was in the outer lane. The bus was in the opposing outer lane, stopped, with its stop sign out and red lights flashing. It was raining, hard. I have an excuse of why I didn't see the bus with its red lights flashing (until it was too late), but that counts for exactly nothing. The deputy had this location staked out and saw everything and gave me a ticket. I also had a record of what happened in my dash cam, which I used later to pinpoint the exact location of where the bus had stopped. In the attached photo the bus is shown exactly where it had stopped and the car in the oncoming lane represents my car where it was when passing the bus. As I drove home I had no doubt that I was guilty, and knew there would be a hefty fine and a huge increase in my insurance. When I got home I looked up the NC law concerning passing a school bus, and found this:
"...the driver of a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction from the school bus, upon any road, highway or city street that has been divided into two roadways, so constructed as to separate vehicular traffic between the two roadways by an intervening space (including a center lane for left turns if the roadway consists of at least four more lanes) or by a physical barrier, need not stop upon meeting and passing any school bus that has stopped in the roadway across the dividing space or physical barrier."
That cross-hatch pattern in the middle of the road is called a "median island" by the NC DOT, and to me it certainly looked like an "intervening space". The judge agreed, and evidently so does the local school principal, who does not allow that bus to offload this child in the afternoons when the bus is traveling in the opposite direction and causing him to have to cross this 4 1/2 lane highway. The judge had us four to stand, and told us that the state erred in charging us with a violation and we were free to go.
(I can't get the link to the photo to work when I try "Preview Post", but it works for other sites. Oh well... hope it does work when posted.)
Edit: It doesn't, so try clicking this link if you want to see it:
http://ift.tt/14wUlHR
Passing a School Bus: Passing Stopped School Bus - Case Dismissed
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