School Buses to Get Prioritized Rights of Way

School buses won't need to wait for the ratification of a draft law that proposes giving them prioritized right of way in traffic before they are given the privileges, according to a senior police official.

Traffic management authorities at all levels should recognize such "prioritized right" and make sure school buses can use exclusive bus lanes and bus stops as soon as possible, said Huang Ming, vice minister of public security, at a video conference held here Thursday.

The notion of school buses' prioritized right of way was brought up in a draft regulation on the safety of the vehicles, which was made public Sunday to gather public comments, after several deadly school bus accidents in the past month.

The draft stipulated the same rights as Huang mentioned, plus a clause prohibiting other vehicles from overtaking when a school bus signals that it is picking up children.

Members of the public can comment on the draft up until the consultation window closes on Jan. 11, 2012.

Twenty-one people, including 19 preschoolers and two adults, died in a school bus accident last month in west China's Gansu province, and 15 pupils were killed in the another crash Monday in east Zhejiang Province.

Chinese authorities have conducted several rounds of nationwide school bus safety checks and pledged increased spending on school buses after those accidents.