Palliser adds cameras to more buses
Palliser Regional Schools has enhanced six more of their school buses, equipping them with video camera systems to help catch motorists passing a stopped bus with red lights flashing.
Motorists could be faced with a potential fine of $544 for not abiding to the school bus signs. The goal of Palliser’s bus campaign Think of Us on the Bus, was to put a face on the passenger that is placed in jeopardy every time a motorist illegally passes school buses which are stopped with red lights flashing.
“I don’t like to see someone get a ticket in the mail,” says David Shaw, Palliser’s Transportation Services Supervisor, in a press release. “That’s not what the camera system was solely meant to do, but it is to make the driver’s life easier if someone does break the law.”
The bus-mounted video camera system has proven to be effective as far as the evidence it provides. In the past year, Palliser shared 43 video clips of fly-by drivers with law enforcement officials, with a few others that didn’t have a clear image of the vehicle. That has resulted in 43 convictions on 43 tickets, with around $23,000 in fines.
“Anything that there was a licence plate, got a ticket,” says Shaw. “Only one ticket was contested and not successful; they were shown the video evidence by the prosecutor before they went in front of the judge and they changed their plea.”
Palliser started the introduction of video camera systems when it purchased new school buses. The older buses required an upgraded wiring system to accommodate the system, and Shaw says it doesn’t make sense to install new technology on older vehicles which might only have a few years of life remaining.
The cameras not only collect video from the outside of the school bus, but also the interior for the ability to track student behaviour on the bus. The past school year saw 66 reported fly-bys, compared with 74 in the previous year.
Palliser knows numbers of fly-bys will likely spike in September, after Christmas and when the weather gets better in the spring, but feel confident that Palliser is making a difference in the 8,300 students’ lives that they drive to school every day.