'Huge Safety Issue': Salem Bus Camera Pilot Captures 1,100 Violations

SALEM, MA — A school bus camera pilot program designed to quantify the rates of drivers not stopping for buses loading and unloading students identified nearly 1,100 violations across the Witch City in the opening two months of school.

Superintendent Steve Zrike called the violations "a huge safety issue" with hopes that Salem's program, as well as a similar one in Peabody last year, will spur state legislators to consider the violations a "serious health and safety issue across the state of Massachusetts."

• Salem Joins Peabody In School Bus Safety Push Using Cameras

"We've had a very, very high number of vehicles," Zrike said during his Facebook Live session with the school community on Wednesday, "just blow by the stop-arm cameras. We are really trying to make people aware that this is a huge safety issue for our young people who are getting on and off school buses every day.

"The idea that folks are not stopping for the arm that comes out is a real concern and could lead to very serious injuries of our young people."

Zrike said the district will use the data to work with police on monitoring specific locations where it has seen more violations.

"We are very proud that we are the second district — Peabody being the first — using these cameras to track, and monitor, and understand how urgent the situation is with these violations," Zrike said.

The districts implemented the BusPatrol GPS surveillance system on the stop arms of the buses that allows buses to record data of drivers failing to stop when students are boarding and departing — which is a state law but is only enforceable when police officers witness a violation.

A release of data from a BusPatrol camera pilot program in Peabody last spring revealed that the
company recorded 3,412 vehicles failing to stop for 10 camera-equipped buses that were stopped for students between Sept. 5 and May 9.

BusPatrol said the Peabody data gathered over nine months equated to 2.3 illegal passes per day for those 10 buses equipped with cameras and that extrapolated over the whole 30-bus fleet would equal more than 10,000 violations over the course of the school year.

A proposed state law would allow camera footage similar to that being collected on the stop-arms of buses through BusPatrol to be used to issue tickets. Camera use for ticketing is allowed in 27 states but the proposal in Massachusetts has languished at the State House for the better part of a decade.

The district is asking families to fill out a Safe Streets For All Action Plan Survey to better understand perspectives, experiences and observations related to student safety. The survey is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese through Nov. 12.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)