Cameras catch cars illegally passing school buses. How bad is the problem in Sacramento?
Video cameras captured nearly 500 drivers failing to stop their vehicles for Sacramento City Unified School District buses as children prepared to get on or off during the first seven weeks of this school year.
From August through October, five buses were equipped with artificial intelligence-powered cameras that captured 493 drivers illegally passing the school vehicles.
The cameras that captured the traffic violations were part of a pilot program administered by the tech company, BusPatrol. Ron Hill, the school district’s transportation services director, said Sacramento City Unified agreed to participate in the California pilot program in hopes of changing state law.
“We hope it will open more eyes in our community,” Hill said in a news release, “and strengthen the passing of school bus stop arm camera legislation.”
California is one of several states that does not allow automated enforcement technology to capture images to be used as evidence to help find and cite drivers who illegally pass a stopped school bus, according to BusPatrol.
“We have seen children almost lose their lives because of this,” BusPatrol founder and CEO Jean Souliere said in a news release. “We urge Californians to come together and demand the state legislature take action. We owe it to our kids.”
A survey by the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services estimated that school buses in California are illegally passed an average of five times per bus each day. This year, the illegal school bus passing survey counted more than 9,300 violations in California in one day.
The 493 violations in the Sacramento City Unified pilot program equates to three violations per bus each day, according to Buspatrol. In some weeks, the violation rate exceeded five violations per bus each day.
There were more than 130 vehicles that illegally passed a Sacramento City Unified bus during the first week of this school year, according to BusPatrol.
The Sacramento pilot program is part of a state initiative with school districts, including Poway Unified School District and Visalia Unified School District. Outside of California, BusPatrol says its pilot programs across several states and provinces suggest that school buses are illegally passed 1.6 to 3.8 times per bus each day.
This story was originally published November 7, 2022 at 2:29 PM.
