"People are more aggressive": School buses equipped with cameras record license plates of stop-arm violators
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania — For school bus driver Brenda Sciascia, student safety is her top concern.
"I see people tailgating," she told CBS News. "I see people cutting us off. I see people going around the bus — whether the stop sign is out or not speeding, it's going through."
Passing a school bus with flashing red lights is against the law in all states and yet many drivers don't stop. Now, all 120 buses in Sciascia's school district have cameras recording every violator's license plate. The videos are given to police, who issue a $300 fine.
"I believe that they forgot their driver's ed or they forgot how they got their license," Sciascia said of those who disregard the bus' stop sign and flashing lights. "The time that it is right now, people are more aggressive, less patient."
In neighboring Allentown, cameras on two buses recorded 205 illegal stop-arm violations during a 47-day study in 2019. Nationwide, school buses are passed illegally over 17 million times a year, according to the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services.
In 2018, Amber Clark and her daughter, Olivia, who was then in kindergarten, had a close call as they crossed the street to the bus.
"There was a white car that had ran the stop sign," Clark told CBS News. "It was barreling towards us. I had just enough time to scoop up my daughter and spin. The windshield grazed her backpack."
After the terrifying incident, she successfully lobbied to have a law enacted permitting cameras on bus stop arms. This school year, 16 Pennsylvania districts launched the school bus safety program.
To Bethlehem Area School District superintendent Joseph Roy, the beauty of the plan is that the cameras are free. He said he's received a couple of emails about overreacting, but that he's more worried about the kids than those who complain about the cameras.