FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, N.J. - An administrative law judge has ruled against a New Jersey couple who said it was unsafe to make their children walk less than 1.5 kilometres to a bus stop.

The parents, identified only by initials in court papers, claimed the bus should pick up their 9- and 12-year-old at the end of their driveway in Franklin Township like it had.

The Courier News of Bridgewater reports a new driver assigned to the route refused to drive down the road because the bus exceeded a bridge's weight limit and the school district prohibited drivers from using a private driveway to make a K-turn.

The parents said the road the children would have to walk on was narrow.

The judge ruled requiring the bus to go to the house was risky.