A Virginia man sped by a stopped school bus, violating this law:
“A person is guilty of reckless driving who fails to stop, when approaching from any direction, any school bus which is stopped on any highway, private road or school driveway for the purpose of taking on or discharging children.”
Read it carefully. “Who fails to stop”a school bus?” The law was supposed to read “who fails to stop at” a school bus. The word “at” was inadvertently left out when the statute was published.
The man, who was pulled over by the police, took his case to court. The judge admitted that the law, as written, does not forbid what he did, so he found the defendant “not guilty.”
The statute cannot be repaired until the state legislature comes back into session in January. Until then, I guess, we Virginians can pass school buses unloading kids. But we will also be guilty of reckless driving unless we stop buses that are stopped. I’m not sure how to do that.
But this is another lesson that, as an English professor, I want to drive home: GRAMMATICAL MISTAKES MATTER!
via 2 little letters acquit man who passed stopped school bus.
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