Multiple bills in the last decade have attempted to target illegal passings of school buses, most not moving past their committees. Kentucky Senate Bill 38, which would target drivers illegally passing school buses with stop arms engaged, is working its way through the state legislature this session.
SB 38 would open up funding for schools that want to purchase monitor cameras for their busses’ stop arms. Proponents of the measure said it would help districts and law enforcement catch violators.
Senator Greg Elkins, representing Clark, Menifee, Montgomery, and Bath counties in District 28, is a co-sponsor of the bill. He said the problem has been long overlooked. In a 2024 performance safety survey, a portion of Kentucky’s school bus drivers were surveyed and reported hundreds of illegal stop arm crossings.
“Every day, we run 8,800 busses in Kentucky. So, if you do the math of what that would mean, if every school bus driver were surveyed- and I did that math- it means 2,886 illegal passings every day in Kentucky,” said Elkins. “According to this survey, each school bus on our road currently will be passed illegally on an average of once every third day.”
In Kentucky, all traffic on two-lane roads or three-lane roads with a center turn lane must stop when a bus engages its stop arm to let students off. On four-lane roads with or without a center median, only traffic moving in the same direction of the bus must stop.
Kentucky State Representative David Hale, who also represents Bath, Menifee, and Montgomery counties, presented the bill to the Senate Standing Committee on Transportation alongside Elkins. He said one of the most dangerous parts of a student’s day is when they get on and off the bus, and a loved one personally witnessed a dangerous illegal passing that could have ended in tragedy.
“The bus was stopped to let a little boy off and a car was approaching from the opposite direction and the little boy was about to cross the road. The car wouldn’t stop, and the mother ran into the road and physically stopped the car,” said Hale. "Basically put her arms out and stopped the car, or it could have been very tragic. And the arm, the stop arm was engaged.”
Elkins added the bill does not require any district to purchase or install these cameras, only making the funding attainable for districts. It differs from SB 31, which aims to require safety sensors and cameras in buses.
SB 38 passed its committee reading and moves on to the full senate.