This week, the entire fleet of 200 Syracuse City School District buses began rolling with high-definition cameras capable of reading license plates and triggering traffic tickets if drivers break the law.
WAER went along on the second day as buses headed out on the city’s south side to see if drivers are paying attention when the school bus stop-arms are deployed. It appeared most were.
While commuters are expected to slow down and prepare to stop when they see the yellow lights, bus drivers also have a responsibility to ensure all is safe on their end.
“Once you get about 200 to 300 feet away from your stop is when you should activate your yellow lights,” Syracuse City School District Transportation Director Jeremy Smith explained the process of stopping the school bus. “You come safely to the stop, you make sure that the students are at least 15 feet away from the bus, not in the road, not on the curb, at their stop,” essentially, he said no one should be moving when the stop sign is activated.
There’s an art to it, bus driver Steve Day demonstrated. He trains other drivers on the order of operating a bus full of children safely. First, he must gauge the flow of traffic to anticipate giving motorists enough advance notice to stop safely. When it appeared clear, Day then started the process.
“You hit the master switch; you turn on the yellows [lights] and then the stop arm activates once you open the doors.”
It's at that point that the bus becomes a literal stop light. With the cameras acting as real time witnesses, drivers must not pass.
“Even if the driver is waving you through, you stay stopped," Smith warned drivers, “Don't let a driver wave you through because then you're debating with the city about, 'Well, the driver waved me through. He gave me the OK to go.’ You know, and you just don't want to be in that position.”
After an hour riding around on day two back to school, only one car passed the school bus. That driver will receive at least a $250 fine, if they’re a first-time offender. After that, subsequent fines increase by $25 every time.
While the fines could be steeper, Mayor Ben Walsh insisted the city is not using the cameras to make the city money off traffic tickets. The number one goal, he said, is to safely transport students to and from school.
