Busted

Hundreds of motorists throughout Ventura County are plowing past idled school buses despite a week-old law requiring them to stop each time a child gets on or off one of the bright yellow vehicles, say traffic officials and local bus drivers.

“None of the drivers are stopping,” said Gwen Gums, a driver for Durham Transportation in Thousand Oaks. “They see my lights and they just keep going.”

But impatient motorists will soon be targeted by California Highway Patrol “strike teams” that will begin following school buses in Ventura next week and handing out citations. Fines could be as high as $405 for each offense.

CHP officers plan to begin their traffic monitoring in the Ventura Unified School District and then will likely fan out to other cities.

At Ventura’s Will Rogers Elementary School on Wednesday afternoon, the half-dozen cars queued behind an idling school bus were waiting patiently.

“The majority are stopping, but they’re surprised because they don’t know about it,” said Principal Jose Montano, who stood in the street and halted cars attempting to pass the buses whose lights were flashing. “It’s a good move, it’s just inconvenient for people.”

Just ask Rebecca Vasquez, who complained of the traffic congestion while sitting behind a bus, with her son Ozzie Rojas, 9, already safely in the passenger seat.

“It’s frustrating because a lot of people are not waiting and we are waiting,” she said. “It slowed us down by about 20 minutes on the way home yesterday.”

Few parents say they have heard of the Thomas Edward Lanni School Bus Safety Act--named after a 7-year-old Orange County boy who died in a truck accident in 1994--although the CHP has been trying to get the word out through the media.

The new law--already being used in most states--took effect Jan. 1. It requires bus drivers to turn on their red warning lights every time they stop, even when children are getting on and getting off from the adjacent sidewalk. Until Dec. 31, the flashing lights were turned on only when children crossed the street in front of the bus.

Traffic inevitably will back up in school parking lots and near bus stops for five to 10 minutes longer than usual as kids load on and off the buses. But most parents say they are happy to wait in their cars a few extra minutes to comply with the safety regulation.

“I’m not inconvenienced at all,” said Marsha Maupin, who arrived early at Conejo Valley’s Redwood Middle School’s busy parking lot to wait for her 11-year-old son, Michael. “What is a child’s life worth, anyway?”

Conejo Valley Unified School District officials, however, are concerned that parents near four of its congested campuses may need special attention in getting used to the law.

That is why bus drivers at Meadows, Manzanita and Aspen elementary schools, as well as Colina Middle School, received a special, temporary exemption until Jan. 12.

Traffic is especially problematic at these schools because of the tight parking-lot layouts, and school officials said they needed more time to alert parents that they must now patiently wait behind the buses during loading and unloading. Letters were sent out this week.

The Ventura County Superintendent of Schools Office asked for a few bus-stop exemptions too, in areas where helping special education students in wheelchairs to board or depart the bus would back up traffic for extreme amounts of time, said transportation coordinator Marc Sattler.

And a few spots along Highway 118 near Somis and on Highway 126 near Fillmore are exempted, for fear that speeding cars may bump into each other every time a bus stops to let off one or two children.

It is impossible to know how many accidents the new law will prevent, but officials say it is surely a step in the right direction.

“For the safety of the kids, the potential for improved safety is there,” said CHP Officer Dave Cockrill.

He added that exemptions might be appropriate in certain spots, but for the most part--even if it seems like a bother--drivers should be ready to stop any time they are near a yellow school bus.

“What? They might have to wait two minutes extra for the kids to get off?” he asked. “It’s just like having an extra stoplight.” Motorists just need some time to get used to the new rules.

“It’s good and necessary, because kids have a tendency to dart out in the street,” said Terry Garvin, who was picking up her 11-year-old daughter, Diana, at Will Rogers. “You wouldn’t believe the number of near misses I’ve seen out here.”

Correspondent Rob Selna contributed to this story.