Frederick County, Md., is the first in the state to install enforcement systems on school buses this fall to provide another layer of safety for students.
Beginning Aug. 27, the first day of school, Frederick County Public Schools buses will be outfitted with cameras that will monitor students getting on and off the bus and record drivers who pass illegally. The school district and the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office partnered with ACS, a division of Xerox, under a five-year competitively bid contract to outfit 40 of the 435 district buses by the end of the school year with the company’s CrossSafe program technology and software.
The county chose ACS after conducting a pilot program to evaluate the best available technologies and service providers. The company will process the stop-arm violations while the Sheriff’s Office will review and verify all violations before a citation is issued.
“Violators will now face serious penalties and be held accountable for their disregard of the safety of children traveling on buses,” said Frederick County Sheriff Charles Jenkins. Under the new program, registered owners who are found to be in violation will be mailed a $125 civil citation. No points will be assessed on their license, said Jennifer Bailey, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman.
She added that neither the county nor the school district would incur any costs to operate the program with ACS outfitting the buses and operating the software. The fines collected will go to ACS to cover its costs until more than 4,000 citations have been issued, Bailey said.
Mac McLean, acting director of transportation for Frederick County Public Schools said in a statement, “The first priority for our bus drivers is the safety of our children. We support Frederick’s commitment — through this program — to the safety of our children.”
According to a 2011 Maryland Department of Education survey, there were approximately 7,000 instances of drivers illegally passing school buses in one day across the state. ACS also released survey findings in January in partnership with Harris Interactive that found that 66 percent support placing cameras on the side of school buses to help ticket drivers for illegally passing school buses while loading or unloading students. The online poll, conducted last August, included results from 2,112 adults ages 18 and over.
