Better learn not to pass school bus in Lehigh Valley
School is starting, so please drive cautiously around buses. If you don’t, I’m happy to report, it’s going to cost you in several Lehigh Valley communities.
Every school bus in the Allentown, Bethlehem Area, Kutztown Area and Northwestern Lehigh school districts will have cameras mounted on their stoparms. Those cameras will take video and photos of impatient and ignorant drivers who blow past buses when they are loading and unloading their precious passengers.
Those drivers will get a $300 ticket in the mail.
Gotcha!
The best part of this program, in addition to holding selfish leadfoots accountable, of course, is that it doesn’t cost school districts or their taxpayers a penny. The cameras are installed for free by BusPatrol, a Virginia technology and safety firm.
BusPatrol gets paid by receiving a portion of the fines levied on offenders. The fact that the business model works — costs usually are recouped within one to three years — shows just how many people don’t stop for buses.
BusPatrol and officials from the Allentown, Bethlehem Area, Kutztown Area and Northwestern Lehigh school districts heralded their partnership to student safety Wednesday at a news conference at South Mountain Middle School in Allentown.
For the paranoid out there who are screaming about Big Brother invading their privacy, here are answers to the questions you surely will be ranting about.
Are the cameras really needed? As I previously said, the fact that BusPatrol can provide the cameras for free and be assured that it will get paid is the biggest confirmation that people blowing past stopped buses is a big problem.
But if you want data, here you go: The Allentown School District was the first to try the cameras in Pennsylvania. A test run of cameras on the stop-arms of two buses in 2019 showed that, on average, each bus was illegally passed twice a day as students were boarding or leaving.
Still not satisfied?
Well, over 16 days last year,
267 violations were recorded by cameras being used on a trial basis by Bethlehem Area School District, Mark Stein, the district’s chief facilities and operations officer, said at Wednesday’s news conference.
He also fills in as a bus driver when needed. He’s watched drivers blow past his stopped bus as kids were getting off. That’s a helpless feeling.
“All you can do is honk your horn or scream at the kids to watch out or stop,” Stein said.
OK. But how do we know the cameras are accurate?
Less than 5% of tickets are challenged, BusPatrol CEO Jean Souliere said. That’s telling. The guilty get to see a video of themselves committing their crime on the BusPatrol website.
Do you really believe the cameras will be a deterrent and change driving habits?
Between 96% and 98% of people who get a ticket from BusPatrol never get another, according to Souliere. Lessons definitely are learned.
There is one big unanswered question that I have: Why isn’t every school district in Pennsylvania tapping this technology to protect their students?
“Only when children feel safe can they truly commit themselves to learning,” state Sen.
Pat Browne, a Republican from Allentown, said Wednesday.
He wrote the law that was enacted in 2018 to authorize cameras to be used on school bus stop-arms.
Browne was lobbied to write that law by an Allentown mother, Amber Clark, after she had to yank her kindergartner out of the way of a car as she tried to board a bus. Clark and her daughter, Olivia Clark-Ortiz, proudly attended Wednesday’s news conference.
Another law enacted in 2020 allows school districts to enter agreements with companies such as BusPatrol, which mails the tickets after they are approved by law enforcement. The tickets can be challenged during a hearing before a district judge. Unpaid tickets are sent to a district judge for adjudication.
So those accused can have their day in court. Their due process rights are protected. Tickets are mailed to vehicle owners. If they weren’t driving at the time, they have the opportunity to prove it.
Sixteen Pennsylvania districts currently have contracts with BusPatrol to provide cameras. They include several just outside the Lehigh Valley area, including Quakertown, Methacton, Phoenixville, Spring-Ford and Hazleton.
Souliere told me other Pennsylvania districts will be using his company’s technology soon, too. Nationwide, he said, about 15,000 more buses will be getting cameras over the next year.
Let me repeat what I said in a previous column two years ago. School buses aren’t hard to spot. They’re big. They’re yellow. When they load or unload children, they have flashing red lights and a protruding stop sign that also flashes.
So there’s no excuse to pass one.
Drivers who do finally will be held accountable and have to pay for it. And our kids will be safer.