Following the tragic death of a young girl at a bus stop in Raleigh, North Carolina (NC) a reporter from the News Observer decided to do a little investigating in to just how common it is for North Carolina (NC) drivers to ignore school bus traffic laws.
The results may come as a shock. According to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction over 2,000 violations occur every day in the state. These violations include failure to stop the required yards behind a school bus, and failure to stop when the school bus has started its stop-arm and emergency flashers. Bus drivers are doing all they can to prevent children entering and exiting the bus from getting hurt, or even killed, but close calls happen more often then they would like.
The News Observer spoke to one bus driver, Kendra Tyler, who recounted a near-miss accident last year when a truck driver maneuvered around a line of parked cars to pass the stopped school bus. The truck narrowly missed several children trying to leave the bus. Tyler went on to tell the reporter that she tries to write down license plate numbers of drivers who ignore school bus stop warnings, but her responsibilities to the children on the bus keeps her from getting every driver. With 2,000 violations occurring every day in North Carolina this comes as no surprise to us.
Currently, police departments across North Carolina issue traffic citations to every driver they see violating a school bus stop law and in December these violations will crack down even harder on drivers, but that doesn’t seem to be stopping violators. Kendra Tyler feels that drivers have a places-to-be attitude when it comes to bus stops and that causes a lot of drivers to try and maneuver around the delay.
After the recent tragic death of Ashley E. Ramos-Hernandez in Raleigh, we should all learn to be a little more patient. Stopping a safe distance behind a school bus stop and waiting for the traffic warnings to go off before proceeding could save the life of a child. If you see someone violating the law, you should report their license plate number to local police. Getting to where you need to go faster is not worth the life of a child.
Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm is based in Virginia (VA), with an office also in Elizabeth City, in Northeast North Carolina (NC), practicing primarily in the southeastern U.S. and handles only injury law, including car, truck, railroad, and medical negligence cases and more. Our Carolina injury law website is: http://carolina.hsinjurylaw.com, the firm edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, as well as the Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard and also hosts a YouTube injury law video library covering many FAQ’s on personal injury subjects. Lawyers licensed in: VA, NC, SC, WV, DC, KY.
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Rick Shapiro has practiced personal injury law for over 30 years in Virginia, North Carolina, and throughout the Southeastern United States. He is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (ABA Accredited) and has litigated injury cases throughout the eastern United States, including wrongful death, trucking, faulty products, railroad, and medical negligence claims. During his three-decade career, Shapiro has won client appeals before the VA Supreme Court, VA Court of Appeals, NC Supreme Court, SC Supreme Court, WV Supreme Court, TN Supreme Court, and three times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, underscoring Shapiro’s trial achievements. In addition, he and his law firm have won settlements/verdicts in excess of $100 million. His success in and out of the courtroom is a big reason why he was named 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in railroad law in U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyers publication (Norfolk, VA area), and he has been named a “Best Lawyer” and “Super Lawyer” by those peer-reviewed organizations for multiple years. Rick was also named a “Leader in the Law, Class of 2022” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (total of 33 statewide honorees consisting of lawyers and judges across Virginia). And in September 2023, Rick was selected as a recipient of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) 2023 President’s Award. Although many nominations were submitted from across the country, Rick was just one of eight attorneys chosen by the prestigious National Board which certifies civil trial attorneys across the U.S. Rick was also recently named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly 2024 Virginia’s Go To Lawyers Medical Malpractice. The attorneys awarded this honor are nominated by their colleagues and chosen by a panel from the publication.
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