Correcting a wording discrepancy plus common sense seem the quickest solutions to a Cambria County dispute that has ramifications for Butler and all other Pennsylvania counties. At the center of the dispute is an incident in which a municipal police cruiser en route to a serious domestic violence call on Feb. 17 passed two stopped school buses whose red lights were flashing.

A complaint filed by the bus company brought to officials' attention conflicting statements in the state Department of Transportation's School Bus Driver Training Manual and Pennsylvania Vehicle Code about what emergency vehicles are to do when they encounter school buses that are boarding or discharging passengers.

The vehicle code says emergency vehicles can pass stopped school buses, with caution. But, the school bus driver training manual prohibits any motorist - even emergency vehicles - from passing a stopped school bus whose red lights are flashing.

After the bus company filed its complaint against the police officer in question, PennDOT ruled that the vehicle code - state law - holds precedence over the training manual. PennDOT said it would act quickly to make its Internet version of the training manual consistent with the law, but said it would take longer to correct the error in printed editions of the manual.

A Cambria County state legislator contends that the law should be changed to fall in line with the training manual, so the General Assembly might be debating that in the months ahead.

There are good arguments from both sides. It is important to protect students' lives by ensuring that vehicles stop behind buses that are boarding or discharging passengers. Nevertheless, it is equally important that when a life might be in jeopardy, from the vantage point of a police response or ambulance or fire company run, that emergency vehicles are able to safely proceed around a school bus to get to their destination as quickly as possible.

That requires common sense on the part of the emergency vehicle operators and understanding and cooperation on the part of school bus drivers. It also involves educating students who ride school buses about what to do if, when they are waiting at their bus stop or getting on or off their bus, they hear or see an approaching emergency vehicle.

When an emergency vehicle comes upon a stopped school bus, it should come to a complete stop to assess the situation and allow the bus driver to react properly to the situation. But at the same time, the bus driver should consider it his or her responsibility to help the emergency vehicle get around the bus safely and as quickly as possible.

It's more than a matter of who wields the control or power in such a situation; it's imperative that operators of emergency vehicles and buses work together to ensure the best, appropriate outcome from both perspectives.

Because of an incident in December, some Butler residents might embrace the belief that emergency vehicles should remain stopped behind a school bus with blinking red lights, on the premise that emergency responders judgment cannot always be trusted. In the December incident, the city police evoked public criticism after cruisers allegedly traveling in excess of the speed limit crashed at the intersection of Broad and New Castle streets, which is near Broad Street Elementary School.

In a letter to the editor that was published in the Jan. 7 Butler Eagle, a witness to the crash said that the cruiser that was traveling on Broad Street was "traveling in front of Broad Street School at at least three times the speed limit; the school zone sign was still blinking 15 mph."

The writer of that letter and others concerned about that December incident would be justified in wondering how those officers would have reacted if faced with the Cambria County situation.

The bottom line is that safety can prevail without putting the burden on emergency responders that the Cambria lawmaker, state Rep. Gary Haluska, advocates. That can be accomplished if chiefs of police and officials of other emergency services instill the safety factor into those whom they command - and if school bus company officials instruct their drivers on how to "help" emergency responders, rather than unnecessarily inhibit them.

The governing theory must be that all life is precious.

It's unfortunate that the discrepancy between the training manual and vehicle code occurred. But now that it has been exposed, both sides must work together to ensure that there is no negative or tragic fallout from it.

- J.R.K.