Bill would add school bus stop arm cameras to protect kids

BOSTON — A new proposal on Beacon Hill could help better protect your children at the bus stop.

The bill would give cities and towns the authority to put cameras on the arms of school buses to catch people who don’t stop and ignore the law.

FOX25 political reporter Sharman Sacchetti obtained video from a company that installed such cameras on the side of school buses in Providence, Rhode Island.

CASE STUDY

It showed car after car illegally driving right by stopped school buses.

The cameras are not costing the city a penny.

“That’s the best part. Not only are we achieving safety, we’re doing it responsibly to the taxpayers of Providence,” said Robin Schutt, the Director of Operations for Providence Schools.

Schutt said the district has had the cameras on the school bus arms since 2009 after state lawmakers there approved them.

Now they are actually making money on the program.

“Again it’s the safety for children. Ultimately our goal is not to make money,” she said.

The Rhode Island law gives schools, the city and state a cut of the money from citations.

The company that provides the cameras to Providence Schools, Redflex, gives them to the school system for free and gets its own cut as well.

Redflex watches the videos, flags violations and sends them to local police who decide if a driver gets a ticket.

The company pays for the police detail.

Last school year, Providence police issued 1,108 citations.

After all the fines, the city made more than $70,000.

The state collected more than $500,000 from fines from districts using Redflex.

THE BILL

“There’s been an overall resistance,” said state transportation chairman Bill Straus of the idea of cameras on the arms of school buses.

He is the latest to push a bill to let cities and towns put cameras on school bus arms in Massachusetts.

Read the legislation, here

We found in 2014 alone in Massachusetts, almost 2,500 drivers received warning letters for illegally passing a school bus.

"Clearly it's a vulnerable population of school kids who are on the streets at high traffic times of the day,"
said Straus, adding that he will keep pushing for the bill.

In Providence, they say the cameras are working.

“We had a 90 percent drop in our top 10 violation areas and an overall 32 percent drop in our highest risk areas,” said Schutt.

THE LAW

The law in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire states that if a school bus has its lights flashing and a stopped sign extended, you have to stop.

The only exception is if the bus is on the other side of a divided highway with a barrier

MASS LAW EXPLAINED: https://www.massrmv.com/rmv/dmanual/chapter_4.pdf   (page 100)

NH LAW EXPLAINED: http://www.nh.gov/safety/divisions/dmv/forms/documents/nhdm.pdf  (page 32)

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