A FURIOUS driver has claimed they got a $250 ticket unfairly despite following the crossing guard’s orders – but they were able to take authorities on and win.
Susan Kennedy-Spain got the ticket as she passed a line of school buses, despite being waved on by the crossing guard.
Susan Kennedy-Spain was given a ticket for driving past a line of school buses[/caption]
The driver was passing Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts near her home in Richmond, Virginia when she got the ticket.
As she waited behind the line of school buses parked outside, a crossing guard raised his arm and gestured for Susan to drive on.
“I’ve never seen the arm up when those buses are sitting on the side of the road, and I’ve been by there a hundred times,” she told CBS affiliate WTVR.
“I guess some of the buses have the arm thing out, even though they’re not doing anything. But I got a ticket.”
Susan reached out to the company that gave her the ticket but still hadn’t heard back a month later.
It was then that she went to court in early spring this year to challenge the ticket.
She soon discovered that she wasn’t alone in getting an “unfair” ticket.
“The place was filled with people contesting bus tickets,” she said. “That’s why we were all there. And everyone had similar stories.”
Susan didn’t have any representation, but she was still able to get out of the ticket thanks to a crucial piece of evidence in her favor.
After police showed the judge a video of her passing the school bus, with the crossing guard directing traffic, there was no option but to let her off.
“The crossing guard is the one that’s directing traffic,” she explained. “It says in the code that if a person of authority, like a crossing guard or a police officer, waves you through, then that kind of circumvents the bus and the arm.”
Bus Alert is the company that Richmond Public Schools says issues the tickets.
Richmond Police says a sworn officer reviews every ticket that Bus Alert issues.
Money made by the tickets goes back to Bus Alert while some of it goes to Richmond Public Schools.
Laws on Passing a School Bus
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSTA), it’s illegal in all 50 states to pass a school bus when it is stopped, the red strobe lights are flashing, and the stop sign is deployed.
“All States require the traffic in both directions to stop on undivided highways when students are getting on or off a school bus,” the agency’s website reads.
Florida launched a program in May 2024 that will cite drivers illegally passing stopped school buses with the help of AI-powered cameras to capture footage of violators, citing an important law.
In Florida, Chapter 316 Title 19 reads:
- Any person using, operating, or driving a vehicle on or over the roads or highways of this state shall, upon approaching any school bus which displays a stop signal, bring such vehicle to a full stop while the bus is stopped, and the vehicle shall not pass the school bus until the signal has been withdrawn. A person who violates this section commits a moving violation, punishable as provided in chapter 318.
- Any person using, operating, or driving a vehicle that passes a school bus on the side that children enter and exit when the school bus displays a stop signal commits a moving violation, punishable as provided in Chapter 318, and is subject to a mandatory hearing under the provisions of s. 318.19
Source: NHSTA, Florida Legislature
It is illegal to pass a stopped school bus when the stop sign is deployed and its red strobe lights are flashing in all 50 US states.
But many drivers have complained about the way the law is applied.
In September, a driver fined $275 for passing a bus complained his view was blocked by a truck.
Scott Janowski from Greece, New York tried to request a hearing but was denied.
While in Georgia, minimum fines for passing school buses quadrupled to $1,000 this year.
It says in the code that if a person of authority, like a crossing guard or a police officer, waves you through, then that kind of circumvents the bus and the arm.
Susan Kennedy-Spain
It came after the state’s House of Representatives passed Addy’s Law, a bill named after eight-year-old Adalynn Pierce, who was struck and killed by a car as she crossed the street next to a school bus.
