Act 1206 of 2009 amended Ark. Code Ann. § 6-19-110 in the following manner:
1. The code now requires that “The superintendent and director of transportation of each school district in conjunction with the appropriate law enforcement agency and appropriate prosecuting authority shall develop a school bus safety plan designed to ensure the safety of children being loaded onto or unloaded from school buses”. It further states “That the plan shall include provisions to reduce the occurrences of a motor vehicle passing a stopped school bus that is loading or unloading students and assist bus drivers to learn methods of identifying characteristics of vehicles and the operators who violate Ark. Code Ann. §§ 27-51-1004 and 27-51-1005 and to provide to law enforcement agencies information to improve the likelihood that the operator of a motor vehicle who violates the codes will be prosecuted”.
The Division will be forming a small focus group of superintendents and transportation directors along with law enforcement officials to detail suggested elements for a bus safety plan. The focus group will be forthcoming to the school districts to assist in developing the plans. Superintendents and Transportation Directors interested in working on this committee are invited to contact Mr. Mike Simmons, Senior Transportation Manager.
The act further emphasizes that drivers of a school bus shall load and unload the passengers of the bus at the extreme right side of the paved or improved portion of the road or the highway and at the right curbing when the curbing is maintained on the road or highway. It further stipulates that “The driver of a school bus who fails to carry out this provision of the code is guilty of a Class C. misdemeanor”.
Act 1206 changes and clarifies the reporting procedure with regard to the passing of the stopped a school bus. The reporting of this violation may now be made to the appropriate law enforcement agency or appropriate prosecuting authority with jurisdiction over the incident. The agency in turn will provide a report to the superintendent regarding the outcome of the incident.