We drive these roads everyday. Add in the yellow buses and it's even more important for drivers to be alert.
"It's pretty easy to become mediocre about your driving to work," says Tim Lockhart, the assistant supervisor of transportation at Elkhart Community Schools.
Teaching bus safety is important to him because he used to be a bus driver himself.
"You're driving a large school bus, 40 feet long down the road, looking in the mirror, trying to watch the road and trying to watch the behavior of the kids at the same time."
He says a bus driver's job is important, but kids have an important job too.
"Ultimately, it's just being respectful of what the driver's instructions are."
To teach proper bus behavior, Lockhart uses Buster the Bus, a robotic bus that emphasizes rules to young kids. Rules like using inside voices and staying seated.
"We tell children that it's most important that when they get off a bus, that they walk ten giant steps away," says Lockhart.
Kids aren't the only ones that need to be aware of buses, if you're on the road driving, here's some safety tips for you.
Lockhart says all drivers need to watch for lights. Yellow lights mean a bus is preparing to stop and if lights are red, you need to come to a complete stop. Sounds simple right? Maybe not.
"It's frustrating, especially when kids take too long to get on the bus or sit down," says parent Thomas Butler.
No mater how frustrating it can be, Butler says parents should remember, "It's important that kids arrive safely and what if it was their own children?"
"Children are precious cargo," says Lockhart.
Cargo that we all need to work to protect.
