Study Shows Minnesota Needs Better Reporting of School Bus Stop-Arm Violations

(Adobe Stock via Minnesota News Connection)

(By Mike Moen. Minnesota News Connection) – It’s a scary thought for parents of school-age children: a driver blowing past the stop arm of a school bus that transports their child. University of Minnesota researchers say the state needs better coordination to go after those violators.

UM researchers say they were initially contacted by state transportation and public safety officials, with the hopes of finding easier ways for drivers to report an instance of someone violating this law.

Along the way, they decided there was more to learn about how the information flows from school bus operators to law enforcement partners.

Brian Davis, the associate director of the Human Factors Safety Laboratory in the UM Department of Mechanical Engineering, said they discovered a complex maze of protocols.