How to keep children safe around school buses

FORT MYERS, Fla. Knowing certain safety rules can protect children who ride school buses.

Lee County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Dan Leffin shared these tips:

• Stand away from the road, median or intersection while waiting at the bus stop. “If you are in an area without sidewalks, the best thing to do is walk in the shoulder of the roadway, but if you see a car approaching you should step off the roadway,” Leffin said.
• Never put school books on the road.
• Walk against oncoming traffic. “If we turn around the other direction and walk back facing the traffic, we can see that a car is coming so we know to step out of the roadway,” Leffin said.
• “Make sure that when the bus stops, the red light comes on, the arm goes out and make sure all the traffic has stopped especially if you have to cross a roadway to get to or on the bus,” Leffin said.
• Children should dress in bright colors or wear a reflective vest to make them more visible to drivers.
• Reflective strips can be added to student’s backpacks or they can wear them as wristbands.