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School buses are back on the roads across part of the Juniata River Valley, and come Monday, there will be even more of them.
Students in the Juniata County School District returned to class Wednesday. Mifflin County students head back Monday, Aug. 31.
That means summer driving habits need to change.
School buses will once again be stopping along rural roads, borough streets and busy highways. Parents will be dropping off children. Students will be waiting along roadsides. Teenage drivers will be heading to school.
For the rest of us, it means leaving a few minutes earlier and paying a little more attention.
Anyone who regularly travels our local roads knows what it’s like to get behind a school bus in the morning. On some routes, the bus may make stop after stop. A drive that took 15 minutes all summer might suddenly take 20.
It can be frustrating, especially when you’re already running late.
But remember why the bus is stopping.
There are children getting on and off.
Our buses travel narrow back roads, busy highways and everything in between. They stop near hills and curves. Some children wait along roads without sidewalks or much of a shoulder. In our boroughs, students contend with heavier traffic and busy intersections.
And when that school bus stops, you stop, too.
Pennsylvania law requires motorists to stop at least 10 feet from a school bus when its red lights are flashing and its stop arm is extended. Drivers must remain stopped until the lights stop flashing, the arm is withdrawn and the children have reached safety.
There’s a reason for that stop sign.
A child may be crossing the road, and the bus can block a driver’s view of that child -- and the child’s view of approaching traffic. A student stepping from in front of or behind a bus can suddenly be directly in a vehicle’s path.
Trying to get around a stopped school bus isn’t just breaking the law. It’s risking a child’s life to save a minute or two.
If a bus’s yellow lights come on, don’t speed up to beat the red ones. Slow down and prepare to stop. And don’t assume it’s safe to go because you don’t see a child. Wait until the red lights stop flashing and the stop arm is withdrawn.
That same attention is needed around schools and bus stops. Children don’t always behave predictably around traffic. A child might drop something and step toward the road or hurry across a street without looking carefully.
Some of the students sharing our roads will also be behind the wheel themselves. High school parking lots will again be filled with relatively inexperienced drivers. They need to pay attention, but the rest of us can show them some patience, too.
For Juniata County drivers, the adjustment has already begun. For Mifflin County, it begins Monday morning.
Leave a few minutes earlier. Put down the phone. Expect the bus to stop. Pay attention.
If that makes you five minutes late, so be it.
Those five minutes aren’t more important than making sure someone’s child gets to school -- and back home -- safely.