The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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10 The Health Bulletin October, 1927
ists in passing a school bus on the
highway, whether at a school house or
not, shall come to a full stop when
passing a bus taking on or discharging
its children passengers. The deficiency
in the law, however, lies in the fact
that unless somebody is empowered
with the authority to arrest a motorist
who deliberately violates this law and
endangers the lives of children, its
operating efficiency is worth little.
There is no law, however, which
would compel the road hog or speed
motorist to give a little more than
half of the road when meeting or passing
a bus loaded with children. We
have personally seen some near-accidents
when the driver of the bus was
perfectly helpless in meeting such a
motorist. It is especially desirable that
motorists give more than half the road,
even to the extent of coming to a full
stop by the side of the road, allowing
a bus to pass when traveling on the
sand clay roads, most especially if the
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roads are wet and slippery. There
ought to be a sort of unwritten rule
in which the force of public opinion
could oi)erate and insure this item of
care on the part of the traveling motoring
public, and many accidents may be
prevented and much suffering saved.
There are parents who are restless
and uneasy almost all day when their
children travel to school, and do not
feel secure concerning their children's i
safety until they return home again in
the evening. In the cities and towns
the municipal government is taking increasing
cognizance of this feeling and
numbers of traffic policemen are assigned
to duty in the vicinity of all the
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schoolhouses, especially during the !
hours when children are gathering at
school or are leaving at the close of the
session's work. The country children
have no such protection, and therefore
it behooves everybody to cooperate in
every way possible toward making the
transit of school children safer.
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