Although fewer students are doing it these days, riding a school bus is still considered the safest way to travel to and from school. The California Highway Patrol is observing National School Bus Safety Week. CHP Officer Mike Steele says although no specific enforcement activities are planned in Nevada County, he did follow some school busses recently to see how well motorists are obeying the law…

Steele says the Grass Valley CHP office has also participated in a project, established in 2017, called “Vehicles Illegally Passing a School Bus”, also known as VIPS…

The project features a CHP officer sitting inside a bus and, if a violation is observed, that officer radios a nearby patrol officer, who usually gives that motorist a ticket. Since its implementation, more than 150 statewide school zone safety operations have been concluded, resulting in nearly 12-hundred citations being issued. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, students are about 70 times more likely to get to school safely when taking a bus, instead of travelling by car.