NY targets illegal school bus passing with cameras
Press & Sun-Bulletin
Binghamton, NY
October 22, 2009
ALBANY -- Cameras on school buses at three school districts in New York this year nabbed dozens of drivers who illegally passed stopped buses, prompting calls to expand the pilot program statewide.
Brewster in Putnam County, Bethlehem in Albany County and Canandaigua in Ontario County voluntarily participated in the 40-day program, which was funded by a roughly $40,000 federal grant through the Governor's Traffic Safety Committee.
Each district received one camera. The results showed 22 illegal passes in Canandaigua, 20 illegal passes in Bethlehem, and four illegal passes in Brewster.
The results were better than the statewide average of about one illegal pass per bus a day, or about 50,000 illegal passes of stopped school buses a day.
The success of the program, officials said, gives them reason to seek it statewide. Not only do the cameras deter drivers from ignoring school bus signals, they free up bus drivers from having to juggle driving, watching the children and keeping detailed descriptions of violators, they said.
"The load on the bus driver is critical," said Peter Mannella, executive director of state Association of Pupil Transportation. "They have 60 kids on the bus, they have to watch the traffic, people going in and out and then they got to be able to" get a license plate number and a description of the driver, he said.
The cameras were installed above the front driver's side window and manufactured by ELSAG, North America, based in Brewster.
The cameras were able to catch the license plates of vehicles that didn't brake for a stopped bus that had its red flashing lights engaged. But because the use of the cameras is not written into state statute, the evidence could not be used to issue traffic infractions.
Instead, schools forwarded the information to the state Department of Motor Vehicles or sometimes local police, which followed up with a written or verbal warning to the motorist.
Under current traffic laws, school bus drivers can fill out an affidavit if they are able to identify a vehicle, and ideally the driver, that didn't stop for a bus.
In those cases, police can follow up and drivers can be ticketed and face fines and points on their license. Also police themselves can catch and ticket motorists.
But with the cameras, fines could be issued more easily and deter violators, officials said. The method would require approval by the state Legislature and the governor.
"This program was really begun to be more of awareness building, but I believe at some point it will go into an enforcement camera situation, just like we have with traffic lights," said John Coxen, Brewster's transportation supervisor, a former Ossining, Westchester County, police officer.
The state this year passed legislation to allow some cities, including Rochester and Yonkers, to install cameras at intersections to catch drivers speeding through red lights.
Some officials said the same premise could be applied to school buses.
DMV Commissioner David Swarts said that, "50,000 times today motorists will pass a stopped school bus illegally. That puts our most precious part of our society, our young people, in serious jeopardy."
The pilot program was first launched last year in Syracuse, where the camera recorded 68 illegal passes in 41 days, or 1.66 a day. The latest program ran from April through September on school days. The results were released this week to commemorate National School Bus Safety Week.
Mannella pointed out that some districts have been leery, particularly of privacy concerns, about having cameras on school buses. Also, the cost could be prohibitive for schools.
In Canandaigua, though, the program was so successful that there is talk about seeking funding to keep it going. Since it was a pilot program, the cameras are coming off the buses.
Scott Goble, director of transportation in Canandaigua, said he had a list of four license plates on his desk from just this week that bus drivers got off the vehicles that passed illegally.
But because the drivers couldn't get a full description of the driver, the DMV will most likely issue a warning letter to the vehicle's owner, rather than a ticket from police.
"It's rare that they are able to get all of that and description of the driver," Goble said.
