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School buses on Florida can take a pass on pulling over

A student begins his day Friday morning catching the bus on Florida Road (County Road 240) as the season’s first real snow moves in. The narrow shoulders on Florida Road give school-bus drivers few chances to pull over to allow faster-moving traffic to pass.

When riding the railroad’s bus to Silverton, the bus often can’t travel the speed limit. The bus periodically pulls over when more than five cars are backed up. The driver says this is required by state law. In contrast, school buses on Florida Road (County Road 240) are often unable to drive the speed limit. The only time the school buses pull over is to let out children. At these times, it is both illegal and unsafe for backed-up traffic to pass. There are places along this route for the school bus to pull over and relieve the situation, which often involves a quarter mile of backed-up traffic. So, are school buses exempt from the “pull over” law applicable to other buses? Sign me, “Doesn’t Like Traffic Jams”

The Thanksgiving weekend is a time of way-too-much stuff to digest. And so it goes with Action Line. But not in the gastronomical sense.

We’re talking traffic rules for bus drivers.

For starters, the state’s CDL Driver’s License Handbook is 132 pages long. Now for the main course: Colorado School Bus Driver Trainer Manual is an additional 229 pages.

It’s not exactly light fare, and the prose is as bland as a cold bowl of poi.

Some 361 pages of rules and regulation is more sleep-inducing than all the tryptophan in your third helping of turkey.

Let’s not forget a hearty serving of the Colorado Revised Statutes.

Naturally, Action Line became a bit dyspeptic.

So we need to chop your question into bite-size pieces. First, let’s look at the notion of the five-car rule.

Back in 2009, the state Legislature debated a “slowpoke” bill. The legislation would require any driver with at least five cars behind him to pull over or face a $50 fine and get three points on his license.

The measure passed the House. But down the road, the Senate sent it into the ditch.

Lawmakers from both parties argued the requirement would be tough on trucks and other slow-moving vehicles traveling uphill.

If you’re driving a fully loaded semi up an incline, you just can’t pull over and then simply pick up steam after stopping.

Besides, there were already laws on the books about blocking traffic.

Colorado Revised Statutes section 42-4-1103 deals with “minimum speed regulation” and prohibits driving “a slow speed as to impede or block the normal and reasonable forward movement of traffic.”

If a driver “retards the normal and reasonable movement of vehicular traffic,” the driver needs to pull over where it can be done safely and legally to allow traffic to pass, the law states.

Florida Road may seem to have several pullouts. But in reality, the big, bulky, 8-foot-wide buses have few chances to do so.

“Florida Road is a problem because there just aren’t that many safe places to pull over,” said a 9-R bus worker who was not on board with being named. “The drivers do their best, but there’s just not the opportunity to pull over safely.”

The shoulders on U.S. Highway 550 are wide and paved. But Florida Road’s shoulders are smaller than those on a scrawny supermodel.

And since we’re making reference to supermodels in addition to food, here’s an idea: We ought to invite some supermodels to next year’s Community Thanksgiving Dinner.

Looking at all the holiday catalogs, it’s clear that everyone in the fashion industry needs a decent meal smothered with gravy and a size XXL slice of pie.

We also need to organize an emergency razor airlift, as virtually all of the young adult males in the catalogs appear slovenly unshaven.

But that’s another story.

The Colorado School Bus Driver Trainer Manual minces no words declaring, “the safety of the students is to be given first priority.”

So if you’re stuck behind a school bus, don’t get in a stew. Drivers who pass school buses unsafely will always get their just desserts.

Email questions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. You can request anonymity if you can explain why we say “the yellow school bus’ when in fact the color is really an orange-yellow; thus, they should be called ‘the mango school bus.”



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