American Traffic Solutions posted video on YouTube last week that shows numerous motorists blowing past stop arms extending from school buses that are engaged in the loading and unloading of students at bus stops.
The YouTube video posted on May 21 is a compilation of four separate instances recorded by video cameras installed on school buses operated by Mansfield Independent School District, located in a suburb about 30 miles southwest of Dallas. ATS, a road safety camera installer that also works with local law enforcement to prosecute traffic infractions, created the video during a pilot program for the district. Company officials said the compilation drew from more than 50 recorded incidents of motorists illegally passing the school bus.
“School bus stop arm cameras are being used throughout the country to help law enforcement address the problem of school bus stop arm running,” said ATS spokesman Charles Territo. “ATS is pleased to partner with Mansfield ISD and schools throughout the country to help bring awareness to the issue and hopefully help change driver behavior.”
No citations were issued during the pilot, which ran from January until the beginning of March, said district spokesman Richie Escovedo.
According to a national stop-arm survey conducted last year by the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation, nearly 100,000 school bus drivers recorded 39,760 total stop-arm passing incidents, often with more than one motorist illegally passing at a time. In a typical 180-day school year, NASDPTS said the sample of the total 88,025 illegal passing motorists represents nearly 16 million total violations nationwide.
In Texas last year, added ATS, about 8,600 illegal passing incidents were recorded. State school bus drivers held their most recent one-day count during morning, mid-day and afternoon routes on April 10. Those results are due to the Texas Department of Public Safety by this Thursday. Escovedo added that the ATS video posted on YouTube was similar to one presented recently to the Mansfield school board that was “eye opening.”
However, he noted that the board has yet to vote on whether or not to approve a district-wide video enforcement program. The district encompasses 94.5 square miles, an area split into several different municipalties and served by multiple law enforcement agencies. Escovedo said “a lot of things would have to happen” in regards to how violations would be reported and citations would be issued, for example, before a program would be approved for implementation.
Still, he said the video proves there is more that can be done in communicating school-bus safety messages to the community, whether that may be a new, comprehensive Public Service Announcement released for the start of the coming school year or other programs.
“No matter what we do, (the stop-arm message) will be part of our back-to-school communications,” he told STN. “It’s a community thing, not just a parent thing. The parents understand the importance, but the general public needs to hear this. We could all do a better job of saying the same thing regarding oncoming traffic and stop arms.”
