{"id":152102,"date":"2022-03-09T04:39:04","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T09:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=152102"},"modified":"2022-03-10T04:42:59","modified_gmt":"2022-03-10T09:42:59","slug":"vwpd-issues-reminder-about-stopping-for-school-buses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2022\/03\/09\/vwpd-issues-reminder-about-stopping-for-school-buses\/","title":{"rendered":"VWPD reminds about stopping for buses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong><em>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Driving by or passing a stopped school bus can prove to be a costly mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Van Wert Police Department has reported a recent increase in school buses being passed while stopped for the loading or unloading of students, a violation of Ohio law punishable by a hefty fine and a possible license suspension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Police Chief Doug Weigle said buses are now equipped with video cameras, which record any and all such violations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe process is extremely simple,\u201d Weigle said. \u201cWhen school bus drivers observe the violation, he or she will simply come to the department and report the incident and the officer will get the video from the school and it will show the violation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It will give us the vehicle and the license plate,\u201d Weigle continued. \u201cThere is really no escaping the citation being issued. The video pretty much seals the case in court.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"550\" height=\"465\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/When-to-Stop-for-a-School-Bus.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-152101\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur protocol is to contact law enforcement whether it be the Van Wert Police Department, Van Wert County Sheriff or Ohio State Highway Patrol immediately upon experiencing a motorist&#8217;s violation of the stop arm\/red lights,\u201d Van Wert City Schools Assistant Superintendent Bill Clifton confirmed. \u201cOur drivers refer to this violation as \u2018running our reds\u2019 or \u2018ignoring the stop arm.\u2019 Typically, our drivers will either go in-person to the appropriate law enforcement agency after their route is completed and there they file a report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Motorists often claim they weren\u2019t paying attention or don\u2019t understand the school bus law, but Weigle said it\u2019s not a \u201cwarning\u201d offense, meaning a citation will be issued for each violation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Van Wert City Law Director John Hatcher said the penalty for passing stopped school bus includes a mandatory court appearance and a fine of up to $500 and a license suspension if convicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe license suspension is a class seven which is a suspension of up to one year,\u201d Hatcher explained. \u201cThere is no typical suspension. The factors that I look at when I make a sentence recommendation are the facts surrounding the violation and the driving record of the offender.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ohio law states that each vehicle must stop at least 10 feet from the front or rear of a stopped school bus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor Driving by or passing a stopped school bus can prove to be a costly mistake. The Van Wert Police Department has reported a recent increase in school buses being passed while stopped for the loading or unloading of students, a violation of Ohio law punishable by a hefty fine and a possible [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 18:15:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}