Ok - this question came to me the other day. I was a passenger in a car in a funeral procession, and we passed a sign stating that all lanes stopped when the school bus stopped. We were in a rural area (on a state road though - not THAT far in the sticks) in Indiana.
Hmmmmm…
Does that apply to funeral processions also? My husband thought that maybe the bus would stop without extending the arm and turning on the lights and allow the procession to pass before letting the kids off the bus.
Can anybody help here? Or do I get to ask Cecil?
Funeral processions have no legal right to break traffic laws. Granted, it’s not likely that the cops will stop them if they, say, go through a red light to keep together. But the law does not give them any special exemptions, and they are required to stop for the stopped school bus.
Welcome to the boards!
I would agree with Reality.
I think funeral processions do have some right-of-way rights different from other traffic.
The hearse will often have a yellow siren light. It used to be that turning on your lights signified you were part of a procession, so you could go through red lights and stuff, but as cars came out with headlights always ony, they started giving out those orange placards for the top of the car.
If the school bus driver has any sense, they would do as you suggest, stop, tell the kids to wait, and not put on the red flashers. However, if the bus does put on it’s red flashers, and allow the children to disembark, then yes, it’d be the funeral procession’s duty to stop. The safety of living children trumps the rights of some dead guy in a box and a parade of his friends and family.
However, if the funeral procession is lead by a police escort, that’s a different story. You can stray from the traffic laws when following the instructions of an on duty Law Enforcement Officer, so if there’s a state police cruiser or the like in front of the procession, and it doesn’t stop for the school bus, then legally, you have an out if you don’t stop either.
In Illinois (and New Hampshire, and probably most states), the lead car has to obey stop signs and traffic lights. Once that car goes through, though, all others get to go through regardless of the light turning, and without stopping for a stop sign, as though it were one long vehicle.
I believe the bus is like a stop sign - the lead car would have to stop.
Oh, and could you imagine the “Trying to drum up more buisness” jokes if a hearse actually hit a kid getting off a school bus?
Some further clarification - we did have a police escort and did run every light, sign, etc. on the way. And, the hearse had a yellow light on top. However, nobody in the procession turned on their blinkers (as I have seen before). We did have little purple flags stuck on with magnets.
Then the bus, which does not have the right-of-way, should not stick out its stop sign and put on the flashers while a funeral procession is going by. If the bus driver does that, s/he is doing the same thing as somebody who runs a stop sign, or any other thing where people take the right of way when they don’t have it.
If the bus were there first, stopped before the first funeral car, then the bus would have right-of-way.
Avarie537, I have edited your thread title. Please try to choose more descriptive titles in the future. There are many subjects Cecil hasn’t covered yet, and it helps us to know which one you have in mind.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
Not a problem. I’m new to this whole thing.
My grandmother died two years ago in Houston, Texas. Her funeral procession consisted of over forty cars that drove for some thirty miles through the city. My grandfather, who is somewhat influential in municipal affairs, arranged for no less than four police escorts. (Or they may have just offered their services…)
All were motorcycle cops with their lights on. One led the procession, one followed the procession, and the other two periodically darted ahead to stop cross-traffic at upcoming intersections. The procession did not stop once. We in the procession had no special identifier beyond staying in line and having our headlights on.
I’d never been in a funeral procession before, and I found the it to be very moving, and a tribute to my grandmother.