|
(1) Subject to RCW
46.61.400(1), and except in those instances where a lower
maximum lawful speed is provided by this chapter or
otherwise, it shall be unlawful for the operator of any
vehicle to operate the same at a speed in excess of
twenty miles per hour when operating any vehicle upon a
highway either inside or outside an incorporated city or
town when passing any marked school or playground
crosswalk when such marked crosswalk is fully posted with
standard school speed limit signs or standard playground
speed limit signs. The speed zone at the crosswalk shall
extend three hundred feet in either direction from the
marked crosswalk.
(2) A person found to have
committed any infraction relating to speed restrictions
within a school or playground speed zone shall be
assessed a monetary penalty equal to twice the penalty
assessed under RCW 46.63.110. This penalty may not be
waived, reduced, or suspended.
(3) The school zone safety account is created in the
custody of the state treasurer. Fifty percent of the
moneys collected under subsection (2) of this section
shall be deposited into the account.
Expenditures from the account may be used only by the
Washington traffic safety commission solely to fund
projects in local communities to improve school zone
safety, pupil transportation safety, and student safety
in school bus loading and unloading areas. Only the
director of the traffic safety commission or the
director's designee may authorize expenditures from the
account.
The account is subject to allotment procedures under
chapter 43.88 RCW, but no appropriation is required for
expenditures until July 1, 1999, after which date moneys
in the account may be spent only after appropriation.
School Buses
Overtaking or meeting school bus -- Duties of bus driver.
(1) The driver of a vehicle upon overtaking or
meeting from either direction any school bus which has
stopped on the roadway for the purpose of receiving or
discharging any school children shall stop the vehicle
before reaching such school bus when there is in
operation on said school bus a visual signal as specified
in RCW 46.37.190 and said driver shall not proceed until
such school bus resumes motion or the visual signals are
no longer activated.
(2) The driver of a vehicle upon a highway divided
into separate roadways as provided in RCW 46.61.150 need
not stop upon meeting a school bus which is proceeding in
the opposite direction and is stopped for the purpose of
receiving or discharging school children.
(3) The driver of a vehicle upon a highway with three
or more marked traffic lanes need not stop upon meeting a
school bus which is proceeding in the opposite direction
and is stopped for the purpose of receiving or
discharging school children.
(4) The driver of a school bus shall actuate the
visual signals required by RCW 46.37.190 only when such
bus is stopped on the roadway for the purpose of
receiving or discharging school children.
(5) The driver of a school bus may stop completely off
the roadway for the purpose of receiving or discharging
school children only when the school children do not have
to cross the roadway. The school bus driver shall actuate
the hazard warning lamps as defined in RCW 46.37.215
before loading or unloading school children at such
stops.
(6) A person found to have committed an infraction of
subsection (1) of this section shall be assessed a
monetary penalty equal to twice the total penalty
assessed under RCW 46.63.110. This penalty may not be
waived, reduced, or suspended. Fifty percent of the money
so collected shall be deposited into the school zone
safety account in the custody of the state treasurer and
disbursed in accordance with RCW 46.61.440(3).
|
