In response to several national incidents in which drivers ignored school bus stop signs and hit children, the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Department is asking residents to slow down.

“Stop passing schools buses. You’re not in that big of a hurry,” Ward Calhoun, the county’s chief deputy, said. “Nothing should be more important to you than driving properly.”

Last week, five children died and several others were injured in school bus incidents across the country, including one student in Tupelo and three siblings in rural Indiana.

Calhoun warned drivers that a school bus stop sign is as important as a fixed stop sign on a roadway. Additionally, school bus stop signs signaled drivers to stop behind the bus, not at the stop sign.

“The flashing lights don’t mean speed up, it means caution,” Kyle Rutledge, the District 5 supervisor, said at Monday’s meeting.

“And red means stop,” Wayman Newell, board president and the supervisor of District 2, said.

Calhoun urged drivers to stop or face the consequences — both legal and emotional.

“It is not worth the suffering you will have to deal with — taking the life of a child simply because you were in a hurry,” Calhoun said.