Stop Sign or Stop Bar? What Washington Drivers Need to Know

I’ve been watching a lot of police chase videos (quite the rabbit hole), and in one of them, an officer talked about the stop bar at a stop sign.

Most Drivers Know What a Stop Sign Means—But What About the Stop Bar?

The officer pulled the driver over and told them that they had stopped past the stop bar. The driver was confused because they believed they had come to a complete stop at the stop sign.

See This White Line at an Intersection? Here’s Why You Need to Stop Behind It

The officer explained that they did make a complete stop but went over the stop bar at the stop sign.

I was a little confused, so I did a little digging. The white line you see next to a stop sign at an intersection is called the stop bar, so you need to stop at the bar, not over it.

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Here’s what the law says:

A stop bar in Washington state is a thick, solid white line painted across a road at an intersection or traffic light. Under Washington law (RCW 46.61.190), drivers must bring their vehicles to a complete stop before the front of their car crosses this line.

So if you roll up to a stop sign in the Tri-Cities and Washington State, stop, and keep going after a stop, you could still get a ticket for not stopping behind the stop bar.

Just a heads-up if you didn’t know this law, so you don’t end up on one of those police videos.