By Steve Brawner, © 2025 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Today I’ll write something that close to 100% of us will appreciate: All motorists must stop when a school bus deploys its stop sign and flashes its red lights. But 100% of us aren’t doing it.

I know this from experience. When I’m not scratching out a living as a writer, I drive a school bus for the Bryant School District. Almost everyone stops when I deploy my stop sign. But so far this year half a dozen cars have zoomed past while my bus was lit up like a Christmas tree and students were preparing to board or depart. 

I attribute the incidents to inattention, distraction, impatience or ignorance of the law – and also, I’m sure,  my own experience.  Most have been the equivalent of trying to beat the yellow light.

None of those motorists wanted to hit a student, but then neither did the driver who killed Isaac Brian. That was a fourth-grader in the same Bryant district who lost his life in 2004. 

Tom Farmer, now Benton’s mayor, was Bryant’s transportation director for 25 years. He said the bus was stopped that day, its lights were flashing, and the motorist had 500 feet of visibility. Isaac was about three feet from the side of the road when she hit him.

“It was a sunny, beautiful day,” he said. “It wasn’t like it was a cloudy, foggy day. It was clear as could be, and the stop sign was out. It was just one of those terrible, terrible things. The kids on the bus looked over, and they see this young man laying there, so it was traumatic also for everyone.”

Testing found opiates and methamphetamines in the 25-year-old motorist’s blood. As reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, she pleaded guilty to felony manslaughter and passing a stopped school bus. She was sentenced to 10 years of supervised probation and 10 days in the county jail. Those 10 days were to be served one day at a time for 10 years on the anniversary of Isaac’s death. She also had to perform 400 hours of community service and pay fines.

The bus driver quit. 

The parents contacted Farmer in hopes of making something good come from the ordeal. The next year, state lawmakers passed Isaac’s Law, which increased penalties for passing a school bus. Lawmakers toughened the law in 2019. Passing motorists now are subject to up to a $2,500 fine and 90 days in jail. An illegally passing motorist who kills a student is guilty of a Class C felony punishable by 3-10 years in prison. 

Even the toughest laws aren’t effective if people don’t know about them. Farmer helped create the “Flashing Red, Kids Ahead” campaign that annually reminds drivers to be careful around school bus stops.

Still, as reported by the Democrat-Gazette, school bus drivers who participated in an Arkansas Department of Education survey reported 884 passing motorists in a single day in April 2019. 

“I’ve driven a bus before where they passed me on the right-hand side from behind in a ditch,” Farmer said.

That is obviously stupid and dangerous. But how should you drive when you see a school bus coming your way or in front of you? As Bryant’s current transportation director, Scott Curtis, explained, the driver will activate the bus’s yellow loading lights 200 feet prior to the stop. That’s your warning – not to speed up to beat the stop sign, but to be aware that the most dangerous part of a student’s journey – boarding or onboarding –  is about to occur. Once the red lights are flashing, motorists must stop at least 30 feet from the bus. They must remain stopped until the driver deactivates the lights. 

All drivers are guilty of inattention at times. That’s an explanation but not an excuse. Bryant’s buses are equipped with numerous cameras, including one on the driver’s side pointing backwards. Its purpose is to record a motorist’s license plate if he or she passes illegally. If that happens, the video and a report will be provided to the local authorities. 

We’re all busy, distracted and in a hurry. But if a school bus’s stop sign is deployed and its lights are flashing red, that means kids are ahead. One of them might be crossing the road. 

That’s why 100% of us have to stop.