SCHOOL BUS SERVICE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 7 December 1940, Page 7

SCHOOL BUS SERVICE

i NO SPECIAL RIGHT-OF-WAY ■ There appears to be a tendency for j some local authorities to erect on roads regularly travelled by school buses, signs reading “School Bus Route” or “Beware. School Buses." In conversation with a country resident an A.A. ; Auckland official found that there was an impression that a school bus had a special right-of-way over other traffic. To such an extent does this impression seem to have spread that a school teacher recently was heard to remark that there was no obligation on the driver of a school bus to deviate from the centre of the road when meeting other traffic. The Association has refrained from erecting “bus” signs for fear that such an impression might be created, and although the Association is keenly interested in the welfare of the children and is deeply sympathetic with any move for their safety, it stresses the fact that every driver of a motor vehicle, including school buses, is bound by the Motor Vehicles’ Act and its Regulations. Drivers of vehicles travelling on narrow or winding roads where visibility is restricted are required by the law, to regulate their speed so that they may stop in half the distance which is visible ahead, and it is considered that any driver who wantonly or negligently operates a motor vehicle so as to be a danger to other users of the highway would not be unduly in- ] fluenced by warning signs, which if they were placed on every route on which school buses operate would be so common as to defeat their object. This article is not designed to critic- , is» the motive behind the erection of these signs, but to stress the obligation of every driver to exercise care on all i roads, especially where visibility is j obscured, quite irrespectivj of the fact I that school buses may use the route . | morning and evening.