SCHOOL BUS CAMERAS: A SOLUTION FOR A NON-PROBLEM

At first, school bus cameras sound like the perfect solution to a problem we didn't know we had. Upon further investigation, we see that it is nothing more than a ploy by the companies that sell these camera systems to invoke emotions and pretend to solve these alleged problems.

According to Childstats.gov, there are 45.7M children ages 6-17 in the US. If 50% ride a school bus to and from school, and with an average of 180 school days in a year, this means there are 16,452,000,000 (16.4 billion) total boardings and disembarkings per year. Other figures show that 26M children ride a school bus each day which adds up to 18.7 billion.

According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Report #812272, of the 1,191 people who died in school-bus related accidents between 2005 and 2014, only 111 (9.3%) were school-age pedestrians (under age 19), which is the group that school bus cameras allegedly protect. Additionally, the presence of a camera bolted onto the side of a bus would have done little, if anything, to prevent these tragedies.

This is because 64% of the children killed in school-bus related accidents over that time period were killed BY THE BUS, not by a passing motorist! Only 4 school-age children are lsited as having been killed by a vehicle overtaking a school bus. This is an extremely rare event! More children are killed by lightning or playing sports.

These programs are sold to public officials and the public with scary videos of cars passing stopped school buses to get emotions going. These systems are NEVER sold with actual data that shows this to be a cause of actual injuries or deaths to school children. Success of these programs is measured in citations issued, not an actual drop in the number of child injuries or deaths. Most tickets are issued to responsible drivers for minor technical violations such as not stopping at a specific distance and even to cars that aren't required to stop. Finally, school bus cameras cannot deter or stop drivers who pose the greatest risk: drivers who are inattentive, impaired, or responding to an emergency. The undeniable conclusion is that these programs have one goal: Revenue Generation.

In Summary:

1. The larger problem of 64% of fatalities being caused by the bus is being ignored to address a minority cause because there is no revenue to be made from bus drivers.
2. A camera ticketing program serves to raise awareness of the violation, but there are other ways to raise awareness than ticketing car owners (not necessarily the driver) weeks after they have passed a bus.
3. Bus drivers can entrap motorists to raise revenue because drivers cannot violate the laws of physics (see below).
4. Photo enforcement fails to notify the driver immediately of his infraction.
5. Photo enforcement assumes the car owner is the driver, which is often not the case.
6. Vehicles registered to foreign (out of state or country) and business entities can often ignore tickets penalty-free. In many cases, politicians are exempt from these tickets.
7. Those with blocked, obscured, missing, or unreadable plates are systemically exempt from automated enforcement making it unfair to those who are not.
8. Tickets issued in error are difficult and time consuming to fight.

RECENT INFO

July 2019: US DOT: No School Bus Passing Fatalities In 2017

Excerpt:

"From 2008 to 2017, 97 school-age pedestrians died in school-transportation-related crashes. Fifty-five percent were struck by school buses, 1 percent by vehicles functioning as school buses, and 44 percent by other vehicles (passenger cars, light trucks and vans, large trucks, and motorcycles, etc.) involved in the crashes.

11/13/2018: US DOT: No School Bus Passing Fatalities In 2015

Excerpt:

"Nearly two-thirds of the school-age pedestrians fatally injured in school transportation-related crashes were struck by school buses or vehicles functioning as school buses," the new NHTSA report found.

In 2015, the most recent year for which data are available, 11 students nationwide were struck and killed by a school bus. None were hit by automobiles while walking to or from a school bus. Over the past ten years, only 4 automobiles have ever struck and killed a school-age pedestrian after passing a school bus. In the same period, 62 child fatalities were caused by school bus drivers. Despite the results, NHTSA is currently preparing a report exploring the use of school bus cameras that is scheduled for publication early in 2018.

Source: DOT HS 812 366

ENTRAPMENT

Video/Ticket #1

School bus drivers can easily entrap motorists because motorists are expected to come to a screeching halt the second the sign is extended. We are aware of no guidelines or grace periods given to motorists to allow them to come to a complete stop when a sign is suddenly deployed. The motorist who received this violation below never had a chance to stop. A cop would have never issued a ticket.

(Click for larger image)

Video/Ticket #2

The green Subaru reports getting this ticket for passing approx 1-2 seconds after sign is extended rather than coming to a screeching and physically impossible stop.

RESOURCES

• Help and Information on Tickets in Georgia: SteaklyLawFirm.com (no affiliation with this website)

• NTSB Investigation Examines Preventable School Bus Fatalities TheNewspaper.com

IN THE NEWS

1/8/2019: School bus camera tickets still raising questions in some parts of Texas

Excerpt:

The demand letter came from a collections group in Carrollton, in North Texas. The letter says it was a “city of Pflugerville” bus she passed. That town, just north of Austin, doesn’t operate school buses.

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