Stopping for the school bus, and more

They are four articles of Chapter X of Act 22-2000 with something in common: they protect people outside the vehicle who cannot move out of the way. The child stepping off the bus, the blind person crossing, the firefighter whose hose runs across the street. And the fourth — visibility — is what makes complying with the other three possible.

All apply to anyone driving on public roads. Article 10.09(c) excepts from the duty to stop anyone travelling on a public road with physically separated travel zones or controlled access, where the bus or school transport is in a different travel zone, or where it is stopped in a loading and unloading zone forming part of or adjacent to that road and where pedestrian crossing is not permitted.

• None: these are rules of conduct on the public road, not a procedure. What the Act requires is stopping, yielding and driving with visibility.Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: Stopping for school transport, ahead or behind

   Article 10.09(a) says it shall be every driver’s duty “to stop on approaching from the front or overtaking any bus or school transport that has stopped at the edge of the public road to pick up or drop off students, even where it has travel zones separated by a line painted on the pavement, if the driver of the bus or transport so indicates by signals to that effect”. Both directions count: coming head-on or catching it up from behind. And a line painted on the pavement does not excuse you.

2. 2

   Step 2: And not moving until the children leave the road

   The same subsection says when you may go on, and there are three alternative conditions plus one that adds to them: you shall not resume “until the bus or transport has moved off, or has stopped operating the signals indicated above, or the driver of the bus or transport so indicates by signals to that effect and, where students were dropped off, they have completely left the public road”. That last phrase is the one that matters: if students got off, you wait until they are entirely clear of the road.

3. 3

   Step 3: Three hundred dollars, and when not to stop

   The sanction is in subsection (a) itself: any driver who violates it “commits an administrative offence and shall be fined three hundred (300) dollars”. It is the highest of the four in this guide. And subsection (c) gives the only exception: a driver on a public road with physically separated travel zones or controlled access need not stop when meeting or passing a bus or school transport in a different travel zone, or where the bus is stopped in a loading and unloading zone forming part of or adjacent to that road and where pedestrian crossing is not permitted. Compare subsection (a): the painted line is not enough; physical separation is.

4. 4

   Step 4: How school transport is recognised

   Subsection (b) describes what the vehicle must carry, which helps you know what you are looking at. Every bus or transport used to carry students must carry front and rear clearly visible signs with the words “ÓMNIBUS ESCOLAR” or “TRANSPORTE ESCOLAR”, in letters no less than eight inches high on larger-capacity vehicles and six inches on smaller ones, as the Commission defines. And signal lights installed as high and as laterally spaced from one another as possible and at the same level, capable of alternately emitting flashing red lights “of such intensity as to be visible at five hundred (500) feet”.

5. 5

   Step 5: Stopping for a blind person

   Article 10.07 is a single sentence and admits no qualification: “It shall be every driver’s duty to stop their vehicle on the public roads to allow the passage of any blind person duly identified as such by their cane or accompanied by a guide dog”. It does not say “at a crosswalk” or “if there is no traffic light”: it says stop to allow passage. Any driver who violates this provision “commits an administrative offence and shall be fined two hundred (200) dollars”.

6. 6

   Step 6: Fire hoses

   Article 10.06 says any driver who, travelling the public roads, drives their vehicle over a Fire Bureau hose “while it is being used on the occasion of a fire, alarm or fire drill, or another emergency” commits an administrative offence and shall be fined fifty dollars. The Act gives two express ways out: unless the hose is duly protected, or unless a member of the Fire Bureau or a law-enforcement officer authorises the passage. Note that a drill counts the same as a fire. Chapter X also contains Article 10.14, on vehicles and people obstructing emergency work, which we did not read for this guide and therefore do not describe.

7. 7

   Step 7: And the rule that makes the rest possible

   Article 10.08 prohibits driving a motor vehicle on public roads “with people, animals or objects obstructing the driver’s visibility to the front or to the sides of the vehicle or interfering with control of the vehicle’s driving mechanism”. The fine is fifty dollars, as an administrative offence: the cheapest in this guide and yet the precondition for the other three. You do not see the child stepping off the bus or the person with a cane if your windscreen is blocked or someone is sitting where they should not be.

There is no procedure: these are rules of conduct on the public road. The stop is made by the law-enforcement officer or the Municipal Police, and the ticket is handled through the ordinary traffic-ticket review route. The school transport signs and lights are defined by the Public Service Commission as regards the vehicle’s capacity.

• Believing a painted line excuses you from stopping for the school bus: subsection (a) says “even where it has travel zones separated by a line painted on the pavement”.
• Thinking you only stop if you are behind it: the duty covers approaching from the front or overtaking.
• Moving off when the bus turns its lights off but children are still crossing: if students were dropped off, you wait until they have completely left the public road.
• Underestimating the fine: it is three hundred dollars, the highest in this block.
• Confusing the exception: it applies only with PHYSICALLY separated travel zones or controlled access, not with a stripe.
• Believing you only yield to a blind person at a crossing: the Act says stop to allow their passage, without that condition.
• Not recognising the identification: the cane or the guide dog are what the Act names.
• Ignoring the two-hundred-dollar fine for not stopping for a blind person.
• Driving with the windscreen or sides obstructed: it is fifty dollars, and it is what stops you seeing the previous two.
• Forgetting that people and animals count too: Article 10.08 names people, animals or objects.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Transportación y Obras Públicas (DTOP)

  DTOP

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov