Blooming Prairie man charged with failing to stop for school bus
A 24 year old Blooming Prairie man was arrested last night in Dodge County after allegedly failing to stop for a school bus.
According to the complaint, on Dec. 18, a Dodge County Deputy Sheriff was dispatched regarding a school bus arm violation that had occured. The driver of the school bus stated that he activated the red flashing stop arm and opened the door of the school bus.
As he did this, he noticed a vehicle drive past the stop arm on the left side of the bus. The bus driver was to get the drivers license plate of the vehicle, along with the description of the vehicle. There was a child exiting the bus as the vehicle passed through the stop arm.
The deputy made contact with Tyler Paul Anderson, who was the registered owner of the subject vehicle. Anderson stated that he was traveling home from work and came up on the school bus. He did not see any flashing lights on the bus so he began to pass the school bus. As he was passing, he noticed the red flashing stop arm come out from the bus. Since he was in the oncoming lane of traffic, he continued to pass.
After the statement made by Anderson, the deputy placed Anderson under arrest and transported him to the Steele County Jail.
Anderson was charged with one Gross Misdemeanor count of failing to stop for a school bus which carries a penalty of up to one year in jail and or a fine of $3,000.
Sheriff responds to incident
After the incident a request for comments was made by the DCI to the Dodge County Sheriff's Office.
Sheriff Scott Rose responded to incident by stating the following:
This year across the country and here in Minnesota we’ve seen an alarming increase in reported stop arm violations resulting in close calls with kids, kids getting hit by these violators, and in the worst cases kids getting killed. In just a two week period from October 30th to November 15th there were four kids killed and a dozen injured in multiple incidents across the country, including a 5 year old girl who was hit getting off the school bus in Byron. While these violations have always been a problem to a degree, the increased number of distracted, inattentive, and hurried drivers that we see now on the roadways is very concerning to our schools and law enforcement.
This past week we had a school bus stop arm violation where kids were out of the bus when the driver failed to stop. Thank God nobody was hurt. This is a Gross Misdemeanor charge in the state of Minnesota. The driver was identified, arrested, and taken to jail. We take these violations very seriously. People here in Dodge County need to know that if you fail to stop for our school buses, you may spend the night in jail. The message is pretty simple - Slow down, stay off your cell phone, pay attention to the roadway, and if you see a school bus you better stop for them.