Need your opinion on this, because I may or may not have screwed up.Now even though I've had my driver's license so long, I don't remember for the life of me what the actual rules are on this, but I like to think that I use good (read: correct) judgement.
Sooo, I made these cute little drawings in Paint so there's no confusion... Check out these two scenarios involving My Commute on a School Bus Route. In both cases, assume the bus is stopped, with all its bright lights, bells, and whistles, oh my.
Which color car(s) should come to a complete stop?
SCENARIO UNO
Just the yellow car, right? The blue & red cars can keep going, right?
SCENARIO DEUX
Obviously the yellow car, duh. But do the cars on the other road also have to stop?
I was Blue Car once, and I nearly hit an adolescent band geek. He & his tuba were crossing the street, but I did not even see him. Nor the huge black case. Now, why didn't I come to a complete stop? Because I had the right of way. And why did I ignore the obvious STOP SIGN ROBOTIC ARM?
BECAUSE I COULDN'T SEE IT!
See, when Robo-Stop-sign gets deployed, you can see it from all angles except for directly above, directly below, or straight on from the side. Why? Because it's a two-dimensional sign that you can't see when you're coming directly towards it from the side!
Don't worry, no children, buses, or brass instruments were injured in the making of this blog, THANK GOD. But it made me worry that I was supposed to come to a complete stop. The thing is -- how was I supposed to know I was supposed to stop?
Maybe I'm missing something.
Feel free to make me look like an a$$ right here with your comments...
I wouldn't have stopped either. In that case it was up to the adolescent band geek to look both ways before crossing the road. How would you know that the bus was letting off children since you can't see the robotic arm from your angle. It could have just been stopped at the stop sign.
ReplyDeleteHere you go, Toni:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.state.nj.us/mvc/manuals/chap_04_13.html
The way I read this, the law for stopping for a bus doesn't apply to red & blue in Scenario Deux, but yield-to-pedestrians law would apply.
You completely had the right of way. If the child was crossing the road where the red and blue car were, the bus should have been stopped on that road.
ReplyDelete