A school bus ahead on an undivided road activates its flashing red lights and extends its stop arm while loading children. What must drivers on the road do?

Why D is correct

Flashing red school bus lights are an absolute stop instruction for traffic in both directions on an undivided road, because children are crossing the roadway itself, not just boarding from one side. The exception is a road divided by an intervening space or physical barrier: drivers on the other side of that division may continue, because a child is not expected to cross a median or divided carriageway. Passing a bus with its red lights flashing is one of the most serious moving violations on the books, precisely because the stop arm protects children moving at eye level with bumpers.

Why the other options are wrong

A. Only drivers travelling the same direction must stop if children are visible

Visibility of children is not the trigger for the stop; the flashing lights are. Waiting until you can see a child before stopping adds a reaction delay to a situation where the whole design of the law is that drivers stop first and look second.

B. Only traffic behind the bus must stop; oncoming drivers may pass slowly

Oncoming drivers on an undivided road are the first parties the stop arm protects, since children cross toward their side of the street. Slow passing is not a reduced version of the rule; it is the violation itself.

C. Everyone must stop for at least five minutes, whatever the road layout

There is no timed minimum for the stop. The obligation begins with the flashing lights and ends when they stop, which is usually well under a minute and entirely controlled by when the children are clear.

On the road

A rural route east of the city: the bus ahead swings its stop arm out on a two-lane road with no median. You stop well back, and the pickup behind stops a full car length further. When the arm folds and the lights quit, you release the brake — and check the shoulder first, because the last child often runs the final metres along the verge after the bus has started moving.

Similar questions

• Unmarked Corner Crossing | CO

  At a residential intersection with no painted crosswalks and no signals, a person steps off the curb to cross the street where the two sidewalks would meet if extended. What does the law say about this crossing?

• Officer Overrides the Signal | CO

  You approach an intersection where the traffic light is green, but a police officer standing in the middle of the junction is signalling you to stop. What must you do?

• Reversing Out of a Space | CO

  You are reversing out of a perpendicular parking space in a busy supermarket car park and a car drives past behind you along the aisle. Who is required to yield?

• Helping Traffic Merge | CO

  You are travelling in the right lane of a busy urban freeway and traffic is merging from a busy on-ramp directly ahead. What is the most helpful and safe response?

• Right Turn on Red | CO

  You are stopped at a red light at an intersection where no sign prohibits turning right. Under what conditions may you turn right on red?