New Ga. law aims to boost safety for kids riding the bus to school
WAYNESBORO, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Addy’s Law is named in honor of Adalynn Pierce, an 8-year-old girl who was killed while crossing a road to board her school bus.
The law is now in effect in Georgia, setting heavy fines for drivers who a stopped school bus.
It also puts pressure on school districts to find safe routes to keep students from crossing roads with high speed limits.
Imagine that you’re on the school bus coming home from school and you go to get off — but you have to be extra careful because many cars aren’t stopping when they see a stopped school bus.
That’s a reality for kids in Burke County.
It’s something you hope never happens to anyone.
But it happened to Jaquan White in Burke County. He was hit while getting ready to get on the school bus in 2010.
“I waking up that morning and I was going to the bus stop waiting for the bus to pick me up and after that i just blacking out and waking up in the hospital that morning,” he said.
He had to learn how to walk again – and now he’s a school bus driver, hoping no kids will ever go through what he did
I do think about it and hope it never happens,” he said.
This last school year alone, more than 200 citations were given out in Burke County, compared to six in Columbia County.
“Angry, when I see them. I have my lights on and Im’ ready to pick up and I’m wondering if they’re going to slow down or not. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t,” White said.
From February of 2019 to May 2024 the Burke County Sheriff’s Office says 964 citations were given for people not properly following school bus laws in place.
But that doesn’t even include people who ran the school bus stop sign. That number is more than 1,200, with most of them happening in the afternoon as kids try to get home.
But now the fine is jumping from $250 to $1,000 in the hope that a bigger consequence will protect the kids – and get more drivers to follow the law.
“This is gonna curb that pretty quickly,” said Capt. Brandon Reeves of the Burke County Sheriff’s Office, “and we’re going to see the result pretty quick.”
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