LOUISVILLE, Ky.-- After children were hit at their school bus stops across, the country, bus drivers for Jefferson County Schools are driving the message for motorists to be careful around buses. They worry for their precious cargo's safety, because or erratic driving around them they witness frequently. Common issues include running the flashing red stop sign, and swerving around them to cut-off the school bus in traffic and force the bus driver to slam the brakes.

• School bus drivers caution motorists to drive safely around them, after children have been hit at bus stops across the country. 
• In Kentucky, there's a $200 fine and/or 60 days in jail for anyone that runs a school bus flashing red stop sign on their first offense. 
• The Department of Education says there were 1,011 crashes involving school buses in Kentucky in the 2016-2017 school year.

In Kentucky, it is illegal to pass a school bus that flashes yellow lights as a signal it is about to make a stop. When the flashing red stop sign comes out, there's a $200 fine and/or 60 days in jail, as a penalty for running the sign on the first offense. For the second and subsequent violations, the fine is up to $500 and/or six months in jail.

Cindy Guldenschuh has been driving a bus for 30 years. She trains drivers in Jefferson County now. She wants to call out some behaviors she sees frequently on the roads. 

"We're always traveling in the right lane, and the cars cut us off, and we have to break even though we're loaded to the max you know we have to be able to stop that bus in a safe manner," Guldenschuh explains. 

She says that other drivers' erratic behavior can endanger the lives of the children on board the bus, but also make the driver's job more difficult to keep them safe while traveling, plus monitor the actions of the students. 

Guldenschuh says she finds that drivers will swerve around bus stop signs, and speed around right before the bus stops to avoid getting stuck in a traffic line, almost daily. The Department of Education did a study last April, and on a single day, reported more than 304 cars illegally passed bus stop signs. 

"We can't be angry driving a school bus, but it does make us a little bit frustrated, because [other drivers] don't understand," Guldenschuh says. "They don't realize that we have students crossing, on both sides of the road, once they exit the bus door."

AAA East Central wants parents to prepare their children to be aware of unsafe drivers at the bus stops, too, for kids to keep a distance from the street at the bus stop, and also leave enough space between themselves and the bus when walking around them.

"One of the most important things to learn, is if you cannot see the bus driver when you're getting on and off the bus, the driver cannot see you," AAA's Lynda Lambert says. 

The Department of Education says 1,011 crashes involving buses happened in the 2016-17 school year. 

"Well, [drivers] need to look at it in a perspective of, if they're transporting their own children," Guldenschuh advises.