Collier deputies ticket drivers near school buses, after tragedies elsewhere in U.S.

After a string of recent incidents across the country, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office conducted an operation Monday morning to help keep children safe when they board or exit school buses.  

Nine drivers were pulled over and ticketed during the operation because they did not stop for a school bus with flashing red lights and an extended crossing arm, said Sgt. Terry Smith of the Sheriff’s Office Safety Traffic Enforcement Bureau.  

The drivers were pulled over on Golden Gate Parkway near 66th Street SW and will have to pay a fine of $268 each. 

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Deputies were also on Santa Barbara Boulevard conducting a similar operation Monday morning but did not find any violators.  

“We have seen some recent school bus crashes around the country," Smith said.

On Nov. 1, five children and two adults were struck by a car while waiting at a school bus stop in Tampa, and all seven were taken to a hospital, according to the Tampa Bay Times.  

Also Nov. 1, a 7-year-old boy was killed at a Pennsylvania bus stop by a hit-and-run driver, according to ABC News.  

In late October, a 5-year-old student was struck by a car while he was crossing the street trying to board a school bus in Tallahassee. He since has been released from a hospital, according to WCTV.  

Also in late October, a 9-year-old girl and her 6-year-old twin brothers were struck fatally by a pickup as they crossed a northern Indiana road to board a school bus; a fourth child was flown to a hospital after the incident, according to The Associated Press.  

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In a fifth incident, a child in Mississippi was struck by a vehicle in late October while trying to cross a street to board his bus and died after he was flown to a hospital, WTVA-TV reported.

All drivers moving in either direction on a two-way street — or on a highway divided by a paved median — must stop for a school bus displaying a stop signal, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. All drivers must remain stopped until the road is clear of children and the school bus stop arm is withdrawn. 

Drivers approaching an oncoming school bus don't have to stop if there is a raised barrier such as a concrete divider or at least 5 feet of unpaved space between the lanes of traffic. But in such situations, drivers moving opposite of the bus should slow down and watch for students getting on or off the bus, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. 

Smith said the Sheriff’s Office works closely with Collier County Public Schools when deciding where to execute school bus safety operations. School bus drivers are asked to record violations they see. The Sheriff’s Office will use that information to send deputies to where the most violations are occurring.  

"The trend is most of the violators were on a three-lane highway in the furthest lane away from the bus,” Smith said.  

However, deputies also pulled over two drivers who passed a school bus on the right side, where children cross the street to board, Smith said.  

In such safety operations, the Sheriff’s Office will put a deputy on a bus to call out violations to officers ready to pull violators over down the road. The goal will be to conduct one school bus safety operation in the county every month, Smith said.