For the children
Albany pols push school bus safety measures
ALBANY — Reckless drivers who blow past stopped school buses could soon face bigger fines for their offense.
The state Senate passed a suite of bills Wednesday meant to keep kids safe, including measures that would increase penalties for overtaking stopped school buses and expand school bus safety education programs.
A third bill would transfer the revenue generated by fines for illegally pass a school bus to a program for study and promotion of bus safety.
“Increasing penalties and education around school bus safety measures is an important step to ensure that our communities are safer and young people’s lives are not put at risk,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) said.
The safety-minded measures were approved by the Senate two weeks after a 7-year-old Queens boy who had just stepped off his school bus was struck and killed by a church van meant to pick him up.
Cameron Brown, a secondgrader at Public School 43 in Far Rockaway, exited the bus and walked behind it when the van crushed him, according to witnesses.
“As parents we want to make sure that our children are safe and we trust that when they get on that school bus that they will be safe and return safely to us and get to and from safely,” said Sen. Tim Kennedy (D-Buffalo), who sponsored the bill upping penalties.
Under the bill, a first-time offender would face a fine of $350 to $500, while someone repeatedly blasting past stopped buses could face fines up to $1,000.
Overall, the legislation adds a school bus safety component to driver’s education courses, provides more funding to the Comprehensive School Bus Driver Safety Training Council to study anddevelopproposalstoreduce illegal school bus passing, establishes a school bus motorist education fund and increases penalties for illegally overtaking and passing a stopped school bus.
The legislation’s fate in the Assembly is uncertain. “I don’t know if that’s on our radar as of this point,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) said.
A separate measure allowing school districts to install stoparm cameras on school buses to help catch and fine people who refuse to stop while their lights are flashing already passed the Assembly this year and is nearing a vote in the Senate.
Top transit advocates have championed the bill and last week called on Gov. Cuomo and legislative leaders to fast-track the legislation.