Montgomery County officials want to use cameras to catch and fine drivers who blow past stopped school buses.
The bill, slated to be introduced by County Council Chairwoman Valerine Ervin, D-Silver Spring, on Tuesday, would authorize county police to install the cameras and fine offenders up to $250 for ignoring buses’ flashing red lights and pop-out stop signs.
The exact mechanics of the school-bus cameras are still being worked out; however, they’re expected to work like red-light cameras. Activated by cars’ speed, the cameras would produce video that an outside vendor would cull into snapshots of the car ignoring the law, said Captain Thomas Didone, director of the police’s traffic division.
“Passing school buses is considered probably one of the most serious violations, next to drunken driving and reckless driving, and there’s never enough officers on the road to follow all the buses,” Didone said.
There are 1,264 buses in Montgomery County Public Schools, of which 1,105 have assigned routes and most of which make multiple runs each day. Last year, 96,000 students, or two-thirds of MCPS, took the bus.
About half of school buses have interior cameras for security, and the schools maintains 202 external school-bus cameras for research.
But police currently can send only warning letters, unless they witness the violations themselves.
Montgomery police issued 350 citations for passing stopped school buses in 2009, and another 291 in 2010. This year, through September, police have issued 231 citations.
Bus drivers report an additional 500 violators each year, who receive warnings.
And there’s likely many more unreported incidents: Montgomery’s school bus drivers tallied 1,645 violators in one day, according to a state survey.
“I don’t know if they’ve forgotten or they just don’t care, but it can be really dangerous, coming from a parent whose kids sometimes have to cross the street to get to the bus,” said Councilman Craig Rice, D-Germantown, who is co-sponsoring the bill with Ervin and Councilman Phil Andrews, D-Gaithersburg/Rockville.
Didone estimated each camera system would cost $5,000 to $10,000, making a systemwide solution unrealistic. If the bill passes, police would work with the school board to determine which buses to outfit.
The Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations is scheduled to discuss the proposal on Thursday, said Larry Edmonds, vice president for legislation. Personally, Edmonds said, he supports the cameras “because of safety for children, and making sure everything is in place for them to feel safer, whether on or off buses.”
