Anyone who takes an introductory driver’s class knows that blowing past the stop sign affixed to a school bus is illegal.
But when school officials in Peabody partnered with tech company BusPatrol to add cameras to their buses, they found that there were over 3,400 cases over the previous nine months of cars flagrantly ignoring the law, and potentially endangering kids.
The law is one thing, enforcement is another: The town can’t issue tickets to those vehicles because state law does not permit the use of automated enforcement of traffic violations.
Advocates appalled by the passing cars are touting a bill that would allow cities and towns to use cameras to detect illegal school bus passings and enforce violations against the owners of motor vehicles.
“We need to make broader use of automated enforcement for a whole lot of law enforcement purposes,” said state Sen. Will Brownsberger, a Belmont Democrat. “With traffic, we can’t get enough meaningful enforcement for a whole range of issues from passing school buses to speeding to [running] red lights and a lot of other things.”
Automated enforcement has historically received pushback, with opponents citing concerns about privacy and racial profiling. Previous bills that would have allowed for automated enforcement of running red lights have failed on Beacon Hill.
“There’s a lot of anxiety in the public when you talk about this issue because there are people who envision a Big Brother system that’s going to watch you wherever you go,” Brownsberger said. “We need to respect those concerns, so that’s been my effort over the past few years — to respect the concerns that people have and to create legislation that makes sure that people know their privacy won’t be violated, that it’s going to be reasonable, that it’s going to be fair.”
Maria Scheri, a parent and advocate, has been heading the effort in Peabody to get city officials and lawmakers on Beacon Hill to pay attention to illegal bus passings. She believes that it’s only a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt if the law isn’t changed.
“Someone’s gonna die. It’s going to happen. It’s just a matter of when, not if,” said Scheri. “Sadly, and I hope this is not the case, but unfortunately, there’s going to have to be a serious tragedy before people wake up. I’m trying to get ahead of that.’”
Scheri started her campaign for public awareness on the issue – “Stop The Operator from Passing” – around the same time that three students in Peabody were struck by drivers passing school buses. The students were injured but were not critically hurt. These incidents pushed the mayor of Peabody to convene a task force to improve school bus safety for the city’s school district.
Following this, the safety tech company BusPatrol partnered with the Peabody public school district to launch a pilot program to install cameras on 10 of the district’s school buses. BusPatrol also released a three-minute video showing multiple cars passing buses illegally.
There have been several near misses with drivers shooting past students who are boarding or getting off the school bus. A student in Brockton was struck by an illegally passing vehicle this past March. A pickup truck in Stockbridge illegally passed a bus and almost hit three children who were crossing the street.
The city of Salem, which is next to Peabody, is also partnering with BusPatrol to install AI-enabled cameras to capture videos of illegal passings.
“It’s unrealistic to think that local police have the resources to be following school buses around all day. They just can’t,” said Scheri.
The post Advocates call for cameras on school buses appeared first on CommonWealth Beacon.