# Cops and school buses **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 30, 2015, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cops-and-school-buses/716361 "2015-03-30T20:09:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2015, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cops-and-school-buses/716361/1 "2015-03-30T20:09:38Z")
A question for the cops on the board: Say you’re zooming down the road, flashing lights on and siren wailing, responding to an emergency. You go around a corner, and there, 100 yards ahead of you, in the other lane, is a school bus with _its_ flashing lights on and its stop sign extended. So who wins? Are you also required to stop for a stopped school bus, like everyone else, or do you slow to a crawl and proceed cautiously, as you would if you were trying to go through a red light with a lot of cross-traffic? I assume the latter, but… ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2015, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cops-and-school-buses/716361/2 "2015-03-30T20:58:43Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > A question for the cops on the board: Say you’re zooming down the road, flashing lights on and siren wailing, responding to an emergency. You go around a corner, and there, 100 yards ahead of you, in the other lane, is a school bus with _its_ flashing lights on and its stop sign extended. > > So who wins? Are you also required to stop for a stopped school bus, like everyone else, or do you slow to a crawl and proceed cautiously, as you would if you were trying to go through a red light with a lot of cross-traffic? > > I assume the latter, but… Ex-EMT not a cop… operating with lights and siren is not a guarantee of right of way, it is a way of asking for it. If a cop/Ambulance/Fire engine blew by and hit a kid crossing the street the emergency vehicle would be at fault. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2015, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cops-and-school-buses/716361/3 "2015-03-30T22:19:30Z")
> [@drachillix](#): > > If a cop/Ambulance/Fire engine blew by and hit a kid crossing the street the emergency vehicle would be at fault. Obviously. But in the OP I said “slow to a crawl and proceed cautiously.” ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2015, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cops-and-school-buses/716361/4 "2015-03-30T23:24:11Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > Obviously. But in the OP I said “slow to a crawl and proceed cautiously.” If a cop/Ambulance/Fire engine ‘slow(ed) to a crawl and proceed cautiously’ and hit a kid crossing the street the emergency vehicle would be at fault. Now what that would entail for a cop I’m not so certain and not so trusting in the system that the good of humanity would prevail. ---
**Author:** ![KCB615](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea666f/32.png) [@KCB615](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KCB615)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2015, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cops-and-school-buses/716361/5 "2015-03-30T23:25:16Z")
In both Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the two states I operate fire apparatus in, fire engines and ambulances are specifically required, by state statute, to stop for school busses with their red lights on, and are not allowed to pass until the driver turns the lights off or a police officer directs the emergency vehicle through. I don’t operate police cars in either of those states, but I will take an educated guess that since a police officer can direct a fire engine through,s/he could direct himself through, in accordance with individual department policies, of course. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cops-and-school-buses/716361/6 "2015-03-31T00:27:18Z")
If there aren’t any specific laws specifying it this is just a common sense sort of thing. A police car would use the same caution as when going thru a stop sign or red light: They’d slow to nearly (or an actual) stop, emphasizing the siren and make sure the path is clear to proceed. ---
**Author:** ![KCB615](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea666f/32.png) [@KCB615](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KCB615)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cops-and-school-buses/716361/7 "2015-03-31T01:42:15Z")
Upon further review of Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 89, Section 7B: [Operation of Emergency Vehicles](https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXIV/Chapter89/Section7B): > [@](#): > > Section 7B. The driver of a vehicle of a fire, police or recognized protective department and the driver of an ambulance shall be subject to the provisions of any statute, rule, regulation, ordinance or by-law relating to the operation or parking of vehicles, except that a driver of fire apparatus while going to a fire or responding to an alarm, or the driver of a vehicle of a police or recognized protective department or the driver of an ambulance, in an emergency and while in performance of a public duty or while transporting a sick or injured person to a hospital or other destination where professional medical services are available, may drive such vehicle at a speed in excess of the applicable speed limit if he exercises caution and due regard under the circumstances for the safety of persons and property, and may drive such vehicle through an intersection of ways contrary to any traffic signs or signals regulating traffic at such intersection if he first brings such vehicle to a full stop and then proceeds with caution and due regard for the safety of persons and property, unless otherwise directed by a police officer regulating traffic at such intersection. The driver of **any such approaching emergency vehicle** shall comply with the provisions of section fourteen of chapter ninety when approaching a school bus which has stopped to allow passengers to alight or board from the same, and whose red lamps are flashing. (emphasis added) Police have to stop for school buses in Massachusetts. ---
**Author:** ![AZRob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/azrob/32/3003_2.png) [@AZRob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AZRob)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2015, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cops-and-school-buses/716361/8 "2015-03-31T02:19:35Z")
I would stop from code-3 driving (lights and siren) and do stop in daily driving. In code-3 driving, I would begin slowing as soon as I saw the school bus and would advise the other officers on the radio there was a bus there. Then I would slowly drive up to be even with the front of the bus, hope the driver pulls in the sign soon, make eye contact with the driver, pantomime a question of “OK to go?” wait another beat, look again for kids, and then proceed carefully. No pursuit is worth hurting children. Yes, you can dream up exceptions, but no. Rob