With the school year starting Monday, Montgomery County is reminding drivers not to pass stopped school buses.
A two-minute public service announcement advises drivers that they are putting students, who “can be unpredictable when getting on or off school buses,” in danger by passing a bus with an outstretched stop sign and flashing lights.
It also reminds drivers of the rules. All traffic in each direction must stop if a school bus is stopped — unless the bus is stopped on a divided highway of at least four lanes with a median. In that case, drivers behind the bus must stop while drivers heading the opposite direction may proceed.
If a police officer observes a driver passing a stopped school bus, it’s can mean a $570 fine and three points. Fines for being caught on an automated school bus camera are $125, with no points.
MCPS and the Montgomery County Police began the school bus camera in January with small cameras attached to the side of a handful of buses.
MCPS has about 1,300 buses that transport more than 100,000 of its roughly 150,000 students each day.
“It’s our duty as a community to make sure they are safe and secure,” says a narrator in the video.
There are 1,100 bus routes with more than 40,000 bus stops.
In just the first three months of the camera program, police issued 272 citations for drivers caught on camera passing a stopped bus. The cameras were eventually deployed on 25 buses. In April, MCP and MCPS said they hope to wire an additional 75 buses for cameras “to move cameras along high priority routes as needed.”
Police project that about 100 citations will be issued per month during the 2014-2015 school year. That means 1,000 total citations over a 10-month school calendar. Assuming a 90 percent collection rate, that would net the county about $112,500 in revenue.
Video via Montgomery County Council
