Committee advances bill to require motorists to stop when school bus red lights flash, not wait for stop arm

The Minnesota Senate Transportation Committee on Feb. 23 recommended that Senate File 3623 be passed and sent to the Senate floor after testimony that the bill would remove ambiguity for motorists and improve student safety.

Senator Johnson Stewart said the bill would delete the current statutory reference requiring a stop arm to be fully extended and instead tie a motorist’s obligation to stop to the bus’s flashing warning lights. Industry and law-enforcement witnesses told the committee a recent Minnesota Supreme Court interpretation left a dangerous enforcement gap when the stop arm was not fully extended.

Catherine Forbord, representing the Minnesota School Bus Operators Association, said the amber lights serve as an advance warning but that the red lights are the operational signal when children are boarding or leaving a bus. “If the red lights are flashing, motorists must stop,” she told the committee, urging an immediate effective date because students ride buses every school day.

Garrett Regan of Minnesota Coaches described operational timing: modern buses activate red lights when the bus is stopped and the door opens; the stop arm then swings out as red lights flash. He pointed to camera technology and said an earlier $50 million statewide effort in 2022 outfitted buses with stop-arm cameras, which have increased citations and helped law enforcement process violations.

Lieutenant Bridal, State Patrol’s director of pupil transportation, said the bill does not change vehicle design or inspection standards but does clarify enforcement: red lights flashing is the point when all traffic must stop, because it can be difficult for enforcement officers to tell from some vantage points whether the arm is fully extended.

On a motion by Senator Johnson Stewart the committee recommended SF3623 be passed and referred to the floor by voice vote. Lawmakers emphasized that the statutory change will require public education and outreach to ensure motorists understand the threshold for stopping.