Corenna Neumire, 38, of Candia, New Hampshire must perform ten days worth of community service after she passed a school bus that had stopped to release children. Although nobody was injured in the incident, Manchester District Court prosecutors offered this as a plea bargain to be completed by August 22 in lieu of a $250 fine and six demerit points on her license -- the equivalent of a driving while intoxicated conviction.

A second offense would have cost $500 and almost certainly resulted in a license suspension. New Hampshire law specifies that drivers must stop 25 feet behind a school bus if its lights are flashing red, including on both sides of an undivided multilane highway. The law also allows the testimony of bus drivers as sufficient evidence for conviction.

In 2003, 119 people were convicted of illegally passing a school bus, but no children were injured in bus-passing incidents. Nevertheless, a subcommittee of the New Hampshire Traffic Safety Commission met last week to discuss ways to increase enforcement of the law. One proposal was to publish names of violators in newspapers and public service announcements.

Manchester school bus drivers this year complained about motorists' flagrant disregard for the state law that bars vehicles from passing school buses stopped to let children on or off. State safety officials said the problem is statewide and are exploring ways to curb the behavior.