School bus safety week highlights rising concerns over drivers ignoring stop arms law
SCOTT COUNTY, Mo. (KBSI) – The Missouri State Highway Patrol is reminding motorists to use caution when driving behind a school bus in order to protect children who are loading and unloading the school bus each day.
Each year the Missouri Department of Transportation partners with the Missouri State Highway Patrol in school bus safety week which runs the week of October 20, 2025.
October 20th kicks off National School Bus Safety Week, and local law enforcement officials are reminding people to stop for school buses. This comes amid growing concerns of people illegally passing school buses.
According to data from the Missouri State Highway Patrol there are approximately 39.3 million illegal passing violations of stopped school buses per year. This is why the Missouri State Highway Patrol works with the Missouri Department of Transportation to raise awareness every year. Scott County Sheriff Derick Wheetley says his department will be adding extra patrol to several districts in the county throughout this week.
“The main focus of that being stop arm violation’s. Make sure everybody is coming to that stop. Allowing the kids to get on and off safely and ‘we have incidents every year throughout the country, and we even had one last year with a student in our county” says Sheriff Wheetley.
Parents and school districts alike throughout Southeast Missouri say they have noticed an increase in drivers attempting to illegally pass school buses. Rebbecca Gaspard is mom with children who attend school in Scott County she says she see’s this often.
“People are just not watching, they really, aren’t, I guess because they’re going to work and they just got, like a one-track mind of, like, I need to get here at a certain time” says Gaspard.
According to Missouri State Law drivers must stop when a school bus flashes its red lights and extends its stop arm and must remain stopped until the lights have stopped and the stop arm is withdrawn. Those who violate the law may face fines, misdemeanor charges or more depending on the severity of the situation.
“I have seen a lot more of Scott County Police deputies, scoping out and like sitting and actually watching people. So, people are making the effort and helping kids, you know, get on and off the school bus but there are so many people compared to police officers that they can’t be everywhere” says Gaspard.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol urges parents to remind young drivers to put the phone away and pay attention and reminds all drivers to have patience when following behind a school bus.
Sheriff Wheetley urges citizens who see drivers violating school bus safety laws to take down the license plate number and make and model of the vehicle and report it.
“We do feel complaints about that about the violation of people running stop arms or speeding. We try to address all of them we can. I think, you know, the biggest thing is, sometimes people think we kind of let that go, and we don’t. It’s just there’s a lot of buses in our county and a lot of area to cover. So we try to address that. We encourage anybody who observes any violations to try to get as much information they can about the vehicle, especially the license plate number. And then we can, do a follow up on that.”
Safety | Missouri Department of Transportation
