Students who must cross the roadway after getting off a school bus are taught to walk to a particular spot and wait there. Where should they be standing when the driver signals them to cross?

Explanation

They should be out at the right-hand edge of the roadway, 10 feet or more ahead of the bumper's right corner, standing somewhere the driver can see their feet. Seeing a child's feet is the working test the whole position is built around: feet in view means the child is upright and clear of the bumper rather than crouched, stooped over something dropped, or tucked in against the front of the bus. The sequence runs like this. The child moves about 10 feet out from the flank of the bus, walks forward past the bumper's right corner, halts at the roadway edge, confirms the bus's red lights are still going, and holds for the driver's signal. On that signal the child crosses wide enough ahead of the bus to stay in view, halts again level with the bus's left side for a second signal, then checks both ways before carrying on. The wrong options fail two ways. Standing at the middle of the bumper or beside the service door drops the child back inside the front or side danger zone, which is the ground the position exists to clear, and the stop signal arm warns other traffic rather than shielding anyone at the bumper. Waiting over at the left edge sends the child across before any signal and moves the judgment about traffic off the driver, who has the height and the stopped traffic in the mirrors, onto a child. These procedures come from the manual and from state and local rules, which the driver is expected to enforce; 49 CFR 383.123(a)(2)(i) names the knowledge area and states none of it.

Source: 49 CFR 383.123(a)(2)(i)