In a proactive effort to combat reckless driving behavior around school buses, BusPatrol has partnered with the Town of Oyster Bay to launch a new school bus stop-arm photo enforcement program to reduce the number of illegal passings of motorists and protect students.
The program is uniquely focused on student safety equity. Every bus in participating district fleets will be equipped with the most advanced bus stop-arm cameras in the country, which utilize artificial intelligence to detect cars that illegally pass stopped school buses.
For the first 30 days, only warning violations with no monetary penalty will be mailed to vehicle owners whose cars are observed illegally passing a stopped school bus. On June 1, live ticketing will begin.
New York State law states that the penalty for breaking the law as captured by the school bus stop-arm camera is assigned to the vehicle owner, and it comes with a minimum civil penalty of $250. Driver’s license points or insurance rates cannot be affected through the stop-arm camera civil enforcement.
Dr. Christopher Zublionis, Superintendent at North Shore School District, said: “We are excited to launch this initiative for the safety of our students. Thank you to our transportation department for being so forward-thinking.”
School districts in the Town of Oyster Bay can equip their entire school bus fleets with stop-arm cameras that use AI-powered safety technology to detect the license plates of drivers who violate traffic laws. Every incident is reviewed by law enforcement before a violation notice is issued to the offender. The technology, installation, and maintenance are provided at no cost to the school district or taxpayers.
In addition, districts will benefit from additional safety features, such as internal cameras to monitor dangerous activity onboard the bus.
“We’re proud to partner with the Town of Oyster Bay to tackle reckless motorist behavior around school buses,” said Karoon Monfared, CEO at BusPatrol. “This partnership is a win-win for student safety and is proven to significantly reduce the rate of violations, with our longest-running program, Suffolk County, reporting a 40% reduction in violations since the start of the program.”
The new safety initiative follows the success of similar school bus safety programs on Long Island, including Suffolk County, the Town of Hempstead, the City of Long Beach, and the City of Glen Cove.
New York State law requires that motorists stop at least 20 feet away from a stopped school bus with its red lights flashing and stop-arm deployed.
Each year, thousands of children are needlessly put at risk due to reckless and illegal driver behavior around school buses, which can have fatal and tragic consequences. According to the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee, school buses are illegally passed 50,000 times each day in New York State.
Learn more about the School Bus Safety Program in Town of Oyster Bay here.