Baldwin Township participated on Wednesday in the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's 16th annual Operation Safe Stop, Baldwin Township police Chief Terrence P. O'Brien reported.

Operation Safe Stop, organized in conjunction with National School Bus Safety Week (Oct. 22-26), is a public awareness and enforcement effort to educate the motoring public that passing a stopped school bus—when children are loading and/or unloading—is both dangerous and illegal. For its part, Baldwin Township police monitored bus stops in the township with a possible high frequency of violations.

Each year, law enforcement agencies, school transportation providers, pupil transportation associations and PennDOT combine their efforts to raise awareness of the potential consequences of illegal school bus passing and to reduce its occurrence.

Pennsylvania's School Bus Stopping Law requires motorists to stop at least 10 feet away from a school bus that has its red lights flashing and stop arm extended.

Motorists must stop when they are behind a bus, meeting a bus or approaching an intersection where a bus is stopped. Motorists traveling alongside a school bus must also stop until its red lights have stopped flashing, its stop arm is withdrawn, and all children have reached safety.

In cases where physical barriers like grassy medians, guide rails and/or concrete medians separate oncoming traffic from a school bus, motorists in its opposing lanes may proceed without stopping.

Read through other Baldwin Township police items here.

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