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Georgia: Passing a School Bus

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tommyd123

Junior Member
My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: Georgia

The situation is: I was following my wife home and there was a school bus stopped two houses from mine. It stops to let off a disabled child, no other child exits the bus in my neibghorhood. My wife makes the mistake of passing it. A few minutes later the officer shows up and issues the ticket. There is no question whether she was driving the car, the bus driver saw my wife pull into the driveway and get out of the car.

Part of me would like to see my wife get stuck witht the ticket so she can learn to pay attention more but the reality is that I will be the one paying for it in fines and increases insurance rates.

What I am interested in finding out is if the officer should even have issued the ticket to begin with. I live in a new sub-division and apparently the police do not have the power to issue citations on my street until the street is deeded to the town. This is what the same officer who have my wife the ticket said two months ago when we called the police because people were parking on the sidewalk and children were driving golf carts recklessly on the roads. When I brought this up to him, he said that child safety issues are a different matter. (Children killing themselves on golf carts is not a safety issue??)

I have been pulling apart Georgia law and found that police can enforce traffic laws on private roads under certian conditions, but none of those conditions stipulate what can and can not be enforced. it just states if all or none of the traffic laws can.

I was told by the dispatcher today that there is something written into the law that states specifically what traffic violations can be enforced on a private road, but can not find it. Anybody know where I should continue looking?

Much thanks!

--Thomas
 


FlyingRon

Senior Member
If the appropriate notice and request is given by the owner, all the traffic laws can be enforced. This is regularly done on private roads in subdivisions.
 

tommyd123

Junior Member
If the appropriate notice and request is given by the owner, all the traffic laws can be enforced. This is regularly done on private roads in subdivisions.
Tracking that, and as far as I know (from what the police officer told me) there is no such agreement. There are certian offenses that are enforceable under any condition, anywhere (DUI, property damage, leaving the scene) and the police officer said that passing a bus IS one of them. But I can not find anything in the law that states that. Am I missing somehting?

--Thomas
 

FlyingRon

Senior Member
Tracking that, and as far as I know (from what the police officer told me) there is no such agreement. There are certian offenses that are enforceable under any condition, anywhere (DUI, property damage, leaving the scene) and the police officer said that passing a bus IS one of them. But I can not find anything in the law that states that. Am I missing somehting?

--Thomas
Never take legal advice from the cops.

I do not believe that statement is true. The enforcement on private roads (without the request of the owner to do so) is limited to DWI, reckless driving, vehicular homicide, and the hit and runs actions of the code.
 

Ohiogal

Queen Bee
I find it fascinating however you want your wife to be able to disobey whatever laws she wants and not actually have to obey them. Maybe your wife should grow up a little bit and realize that she actually needs to follow the law. Laws are for everyone --- she isn't special and therefore excluded from having to obey them.
 

tommyd123

Junior Member
I find it fascinating however you want your wife to be able to disobey whatever laws she wants and not actually have to obey them. Maybe your wife should grow up a little bit and realize that she actually needs to follow the law. Laws are for everyone --- she isn't special and therefore excluded from having to obey them.
I find it even more facinating that you think you know what I want my wife to do. If you actually took the time to read and digest my first post, you would see that part of me wants her to be stuck with the ticket. Also, if it is determined that no law was broken because passing a school bus is not an enforceable law on private roads, then your post is a bunch of hot air because....no law was broken, regardles if it was right or wrong for her to do. Back on topic....

The officer that gave her the ticket is also the same officer that told us weeks ago that traffic law is not enforceable in my neibghorhood. I don't know what the legal term is, but would that be the same as an officer telling you it is ok to speed and then give you a ticket for it?

--Thomas
 

CSO286

Senior Member
Stop questioning and looking for loopholes.

Consider the price your wife would have to pay had a child darted out in front of the the bus and she struck him.....

Ticket: maybe $200.

Lawsuit? trauma? increased insurance premiums? lifetime of guilt?

I'll take the ticket, please.
 

tommyd123

Junior Member
Stop questioning and looking for loopholes.
Umm...no.

I will question and look for loopholes all day long. Is that not how most bottom feeding lawyers make their living?

Besides, the bus lets off one disabled child at that stop. There are no other children on the bus at that time of day, and the disabled kid was already off, and I highly doubt he was going to dart across the road. Unless the earth shifted on it's axis at the same time that gravity stopped working causing the wheelchair to roll UP the hill into the road.
--Thomas
 

CSO286

Senior Member
Umm...no.

I will question and look for loopholes all day long. Is that not how most bottom feeding lawyers make their living?

Besides, the bus lets off one disabled child at that stop. There are no other children on the bus at that time of day, and the disabled kid was already off, and I highly doubt he was going to dart across the road. Unless the earth shifted on it's axis at the same time that gravity stopped working causing the wheelchair to roll UP the hill into the road.
--Thomas
Here's the deal: what she did was wrong. She got caught. It doesn't matter whether the kid was off the bus or not. Doesn't matter if the driver was just playing with the sign. There is a reason for

And how would she know if an extra kid was riding the bus that day...? And why take that chance???

http://sbi.elitedecision.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=28

Pedestrian fatalities

Last year, 26 children were killed as pedestrians getting on or off a school bus, or while waiting at the school bus stop. Other motorists illegally passing a stopped school bus remain a problem in every community and the school bus industry urges strict police and judicial enforcement against violators. Over the past 10 years, an average of 29 children were killed in school bus-related pedestrian accidents - struck while getting on or off a school bus

Pay the ticket. This is one area where things really aren't grey.
 

tommyd123

Junior Member
It is quite unfortunate that the parents of those 26 children did not teach them to look both ways before crossing a street.

While your personal feelings on whether passing a bus is wrong are noted, they were not solicited or welcomed. It is a no-brainer that it is wrong to pass a school bus.

I may be wrong, but I thought I was posting on a forum for Traffic Law. I am sorry to have incorrectly posted in the "what I think is right or wrong, regardless of the law' forum. Can you kindly direct me to the forum that is for legal advice and discussion?

--Thomas
 

CSO286

Senior Member
It is quite unfortunate that the parents of those 26 children did not teach them to look both ways before crossing a street.

While your personal feelings on whether passing a bus is wrong are noted, they were not solicited or welcomed. It is a no-brainer that it is wrong to pass a school bus.

I may be wrong, but I thought I was posting on a forum for Traffic Law. I am sorry to have incorrectly posted in the "what I think is right or wrong, regardless of the law' forum. Can you kindly direct me to the forum that is for legal advice and discussion?

--Thomas
I find it more unfortunate that the people driving the vehicles decided the laws didn't apply to them or that they failed to maintain adequate awareness of their surroundings to such a degree as to result in the death of a child.

Childrens' brain are not fully developed---it takes 18-24 years to fully develop the area of the brain that handles impulse control.

An adult--has no excuse.

What's your wife's?

Legal advice: She needs to pay the ticket. She violated the traffic regulations. She should be held accountable.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
Here's the law you are looking for. It has nothing to do with whether or not the road is deeded to the municipality:

http://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/2010/title-40/chapter-6/article-1/40-6-3/

Read it and figure it out yourself. And hope that the next person that is killed by some idiot who can't wait the 30 freaking seconds for the bus to finish up and head out is not your loved one. :mad:
 

stealth2

Under the Radar Member
It is quite unfortunate that the parents of those 26 children did not teach them to look both ways before crossing a street.
Even more unfortunate that you and your wife are apparently too stupid to understand that 30-60 seconds to get home are not worth riskign a child's life.

Please do not procreate. We don't need more of you in the world.
 

tommyd123

Junior Member
Here's the law you are looking for. It has nothing to do with whether or not the road is deeded to the municipality:

http://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/2010/title-40/chapter-6/article-1/40-6-3/

Read it and figure it out yourself. And hope that the next person that is killed by some idiot who can't wait the 30 freaking seconds for the bus to finish up and head out is not your loved one. :mad:
Yes..Read it many times..welcome to last week for me.

and yes, you are kinda right that the law has nothing to do wit the fact that the streets were not deeded to the city. What is relevant is that it was a private road and without a formal agreement between the police and the developer of the neibghorhood, the school bus law does not apply. Regardless of how wrong y'all feel it was to pass the bus, if the law did not apply in this situation, then no law was broken. O.C.G.A 40-6-3 specifically states what offenses are enforceable on private property ( 40-6-3(3), 40-6-3(4)). There is no mention of passing a school bus.

I am trying to research if there is a law that states that the laws regarding school busses is enforcable everywhere under any and all conditions. So far I have not found anything like that.

--Thomas
 
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