WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Rachael Izquierdo lives on a busy Winston-Salem street, near Reynolda Road, that she says has grown dangerous.
Izquierdo says her young daughter was boarding her school bus last Friday when someone driving a truck decided he wasn't going to wait.
"I ran down with my arms waving!" she exclaimed. "I’m yelling at the guy 'hey stop there’s a bus there’s a bus!'"
She said the driver went around three cars plus the stopped school bus, and almost hit the bus and her 6-year-old daughter getting on.
"{My daughter Nevaeh} was jumping up on the bus and she had noticed it because I was screaming, and she turned around and got a little scared and ran into the bus," Izquierdo explained.
It happened on Shattalon Drive. She added that many people speed on the road, and it's concerning. Especially because many families live on Shattalon Drive.
"Quite frankly, you’re putting children's lives in danger."
AAA Carolinas cites specific school bus rules:
The driver of any vehicle approaching a school bus from any direction, when the bus is displaying its stop signal or flashing signal lights, shall stop the vehicle before passing the bus and remain stopped until the signal has been turned off.
Vehicles traveling on the opposite side of a divided highway do not need to stop.
2 Wants to Know has found, there are only two times oncoming traffic does not have to stop for a bus:
(1) When there is a divided highway of four lanes with a median and
(2) When there are four lanes with a center turning lane.
Penalties carry up to a $500 fine for passing a stopped school bus.
The greatest risk to your child is not riding a bus, but approaching or leaving one, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NTSA).