The Calhoun County Sheriff's Office will enforce the Stopped School bus laws and will be out in the area looking for violators. The following is the state law on passing a stopped school bus.
27-51-1004. Passing when stopped prohibited. (a) When a school bus stops and displays its alternating red warning lights for the purpose of loading or unloading passengers, every operator of a motor vehicle or motorcycle meeting or overtaking the school bus from any direction shall bring the motor vehicle or motorcycle to a complete stop before reaching the school bus.
(b) The operator of the motor vehicle or motorcycle shall not start up or attempt to pass in any direction until the school bus vehicle has finished receiving or discharging its passengers and is in motion again.
27-51-1001. Penalty. (a) (1) (A) (i) Any party who violates any of the provisions of this subchapter shall upon conviction be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be fined not less than two hundred fifty dollars ($250) nor more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) or confined in the county jail not to exceed ninety (90) days or both fined and imprisoned.
(ii) In addition to the penalties so prescribed, the court may order community service for not more than four hundred (400) hours and shall suspend the person's driver's license for a period of not less than twenty-one (21) days nor more than one (1) year.
(B) There is hereby created a rebuttable presumption that shall arise in any criminal action under this subchapter to the effect that if it can be proven that a person is the registered owner of a vehicle that is driven in a manner which violates the provisions of this subchapter, the person is presumed to have been the driver of the vehicle at the time of the violation.
(2) If death results to any person, caused either directly or indirectly by noncompliance with or violation of any of the provisions of this subchapter, the offending party shall be punished as is provided by law.
(b) In a proceeding for a violation of this subchapter, proof that the particular vehicle described in the citation, complaint, or warrant was in violation of this subchapter, together with proof that the defendant named in the citation, complaint, or warrant was at the time of the violation a registered owner of the vehicle, shall constitute in evidence a justifiable inference that the registered owner of the vehicle was the driver of the vehicle at the time of the violation.
