8-1730. Lighting equipment and warning devices on school buses. (a) Every school bus, in addition to any other equipment and distinctive markings required by this act:

(1) Shall be equipped with signal lamps mounted as high and as widely spaced laterally as practicable, which shall display to the front two alternately flashing red lights located at the same level and to the rear two alternately flashing red lights located at the same level, and these lights shall be visible at 500 feet in normal sunlight; and

(2) every new school bus put into initial service after July 1, 2007, shall be equipped with a white flashing strobe light mounted on the roof of such bus to afford optimum visibility.

(b) Any school bus, in addition to the lights required by subsection (a), may be equipped with:

(1) Yellow signal lamps mounted near each of the four red lamps and at the same level but closer to the vertical centerline of the bus, which shall display two alternately flashing yellow lights to the front and two alternately flashing yellow lights to the rear, and these lights shall be visible at 500 feet in normal sunlight. These lights shall be displayed by the school bus driver at least 200 feet, but not more than 1,000 feet, before every stop at which the alternately flashing red lights required by subsection (a) will be actuated; or

(2) head lamps which alternately flash on low beam or simultaneously flash on low beam, except such head lamps shall only be activated during daylight hours.

(c) The state board of education is authorized to adopt rules and regulations promulgating standards and specifications applicable to lighting equipment on and special warning devices to be carried by school buses consistent with the provisions of this act. Such standards and specifications shall correlate with and so far as consistent with the provisions of this act conform to the specifications then current as approved by the society of automotive engineers.

(d) The provisions of this section shall be subject to the provisions contained in K.S.A. 8-2009a, and amendments thereto.

History: L. 1974, ch. 33, § 8-1730; L. 1975, ch. 39, § 25; L. 1975, ch. 427, § 35; L. 1976, ch. 40, § 8; L. 1994, ch. 201, § 3; L. 2000, ch. 74, § 2; L. 2006, ch. 103, § 1; July 1, 2007.