NEW CITY – Rockland County Executive Ed Day gave school leaders a briefing on the county’s new school bus safety initiative in conjunction with BusPatrol, a vendor that provides stop-arm camera services for school buses. The county has partnered with BusPatrol to assist in reducing the rate of illegal passing of stopped school buses through the Rockland County School Bus Safety program.
Every day in New York State, an estimated 50,000 drivers illegally pass stopped school buses, putting the lives and safety of children at risk, according to a statement from the county executive. BusPatrol says the program has a proven reduction in the rate of illegal passings by up to 30% year over year.
Roughly 30 district leaders from various schools attended the event for an in-depth presentation from BusPatrol and a live look at the camera equipment.
“The violator-funded business model allows districts to opt into the program and have their school buses equipped with cameras on the bus stop-arms at no cost to districts,” said County Executive Day. “I’m hopeful that all our school districts, private and public, do opt into this.”
Drivers caught by those cameras illegally passing activated stop-arms on school buses will then be issued the following penalties by mail:
- 1st Violation $250
- 2nd Violation $275
- 3rd Violation $300 (within an 18-month period)
Once 25% of buses for a district are equipped with cameras a 30-day warning period will begin for residents. After that ends, the live citation and ticketing will start.
Of the revenue generated from the violations, 55% goes back to BusPatrol and 45% goes to the County for the first two years, after which the revenue split turns to 60% for the vendor and 40% for the county. The revenue the County receives funds the internal cameras that are installed, the enforcement cost under the Sheriff’s Office which includes hiring an officer to review the footage, and a $115 per bus technology fee.
“Whoever saves one person, saves the whole world,” Rockland County Legislator Aron Wieder said. “Mothers and children will be safer tomorrow because of what we’ve done today.”
“I want to start off on behalf of myself thanking County Executive Ed Day for working collaboratively with law enforcement, and across the aisle with our legislators, to give us another tool in our toolbox in law enforcement to keep our children safe and that’s very, very important to us,” said Rockland County Sheriff Louis Falco.
BusPatrol confirms that several districts have begun the required process of opting in to the agreement.
A video of the technology can be viewed below.
