CHARLESTON, W.Va. — With incidents involving motorists passing school buses while they unload children continuing around Kanawha County, Kanahwa County Sheriff’s Deputies are making a focused effort to crackdown on those violating the law.
As part of an initiative funded by the Kanawha County Commission, both marked and unmarked police cars will now shadow school buses.
“We’re going to be doing this, working closely with the school bus garages and the board of education to indicate where the problem area are,” said Kanawha County Chief Deputy Sheriff Mike Rutherford at a news conference in Elkview Wednesday. “We’re going to concentrate our deputies in those areas to watch for any violators of the law. We’ve been able to get the county commission on board, and they’ve provided us with some overtime funds.”
Many of the problem areas have been on roads with medians, such as MacCorkle Avenue in Kanawha City or Jefferson Road in St. Albans. Rutherford pointed out that even on such roads, the law still applies.
“You have to stop in both lanes, east and west. Because they’re not considered a divided highway as far as restricted traffic coming out of certain locations,” Rutherford explained. “One child being struck is way too many. We’re not going to allow that. We’re going to do everything we can to make sure our kids are safe.”
First offense for passing a school bus results in loss of license for 30 days, second offense 90 days and the third offense 180 days.
Kanawha County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ron Duerring was grateful for the sheriff’s department working with the schools, and had a message for anyone passing a school bus.
“I would say to them stop. There’s nothing more tragic than a child getting off the bus, who’s struck by a car and may be killed. No one wants that on their conscience,” Duerring said. “I don’t think you should be in that big of a hurry that you can’t stop long enough for those kids to unload off the bus and get to safety.”
Kanawha County Schools introduced an extended stop arm for school buses this school year, but incidents involving passing have continued.
Rutherford said that the crackdown initiative would continue until the end of the school year.