, 082018 GAGAO, AGO U2018-2

• Case Date: August 20, 2018
• Court: Georgia

AGO U2018-2 Unofficial Opinion U2018-2 Georgia Attorney General Opinion August 20, 2018          To:          Chair, Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia          Re:          Georgia law does not require a vehicle travelling on a three or five lane road divided by a center turn lane to stop for a school bus that is stopped on the opposite side of the road with its visual signals engaged.          You have asked whether, based on the 2018 revision to O.C.G.A. § 40-6-163(b), a car travelling south on a three or five lane road where the north and south lanes are divided by only a center turn lane and not a grass strip or other physical dividing median has an obligation under Georgia law to stop for a school bus that is stopped with its visual signals engaged.^[1] For the reasons that follow, I conclude that this statute, as amended by the General Assembly during the 2018 session, does not require a vehicle travelling on a three or five lane road divided by a center turn lane to stop for a school bus that is stopped on the opposite side of the road with its visual signals engaged. See O.C.G.A. § 40-6-163(b) (2018).          Prior to the 2018 revision, O.C.G.A. § 40-6-163(b) read in relevant part: “The driver of a vehicle upon a highway with separate roadways need not stop upon meeting or passing a school bus which is on a different roadway . . . .” 1990 Ga. Laws 2048, 2273. This office previously interpreted this language to mean that vehicles approaching from the opposite side of a highway separated by a grass strip or other physical division were not required to stop for a school bus, but all vehicles approaching a stopped school bus from either direction were required to stop if the lanes were separated only by painted stripes such as a flush median or left-turn lane. See 1989 Op. Att’y Gen. No. 89-20; 1963-65 Op. Att’y Gen. pp. 303, 304.          However, the General Assembly recently amended the language of O.C.G.A. § 40-6-163(b) to provide:

The driver of a vehicle upon a highway with separate roadways or a divided highway, including, but not limited to, a highway divided by a turn lane, need not stop upon

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