On a weekday morning last week, Shannon Jackett ran into the middle of Wyoming Highway 220 and waved her arms at the oncoming semi-truck until the driver hit the brakes and stopped.

It wasn't the first time the Natrona County School Board trustee stopped vehicles that don't slow down for the stopped school bus carrying her children. It happens regularly, she said, and the afternoon is worse.

"Stopping makes them maybe a minute behind schedule, but you cannot tell me that one minute is worth running those red lights," Jackett said. "People have a complete disregard for a bus's red lights."

On undivided road ways, both directions of traffic must stop for a school bus until the bus's stop sign folds in, the flashing red lights turn off and the bus moves forward, according to the Wyoming Rules of the Road. If the lanes are not divided by a median or other barrier, only the traffic going the same direction as the school bus must stop.

Passing the bus is called a "fly by" and drivers can be fined up to $750.

At least six fly bys happen every day in Natrona County, according to Chuck Huber, assistant director of transportation for the Natrona County School District. Huber said he's stopped cars outside Dean Morgan Junior High School.

"A number of people say 'I didn't know,'" Huber said. "It's a problem in the city and the county and the state."

One day each year, school bus drivers count the number of fly bys and phone the tally into the Wyoming Department of Education. On a Wednesday in February 2008, drivers reported 287 fly bys. If that were true for every school day, there would be about 53,000 fly bys every year.

About 33,000 students -- 40 percent of all students -- ride the bus on an average day, according to Leeds Pickering, director of health, safety and nutrition for the state Department of Education.

"We're out there when everyone's trying to go to work in the morning and when they're getting off work in evening," Pickering said. "There's more traffic out there when we're out there. Some people just don't seem to have time."

Under state law, the driver can only receive a citation if a peace officer witnesses the act. A bill tried to change that by allowing bus drivers to phone in license plates of offenders. The owner of the vehicle would receive a ticket for the violation. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Matt Teeters, R-Lingle, passed in the House but failed in the Senate. Teeters said some did not want to trust bus drivers with the authority to report violations.

"A lot of other states do it -- Colorado, Pennsylvania -- and it's shown to help deter and stop repeat offenders," he said.

Teeters said he would need more support to sponsor the bill again.

Cameras might be a way around the trust issue, but they are expensive and not effective yet, said Pickering. Dust, snow and wind shake and damage the cameras. Wyoming is far from immune from that weather. Pickering said it would be easier to let the drivers phone in plates.

"We have to trust the bus drivers to be professional," he said. "We're trusting them with up to 84 kids."

The same week the bill failed, a 6-year-old kindergartner was hit by a school bus in Gillette. The bus driver said she didn't see the boy. Her attention was focused on a white van that flew by the bus.

Reach education reporter Jackie Borchardt at (307) 266-0593 or at jackie.borchardt@trib.com. Read her education blog at tribtown.trib.com/reportcard

KEYWORDS: school bus, Wyoming Department of Education