5 Districts In Oyster Bay Add Stop-Arm Cameras To School Buses

OYSTER BAY, NY — Five of the school districts in the town of Oyster Bay have signed up for a school bus stop-arm camera program to reduce reckless and illegal driving behavior while students are getting on and off.

Technology company BusPatrol has equipped every bus in participating district fleets with cameras that use artificial intelligence to detect cars that illegally pass school buses stopped with red lights flashing and stop sign deployed.

Drivers caught by those cameras illegally passing a school bus will be issued penalties by mail. School-bus-camera tickets are based on an evidence package that contains video and GPS telemetry. BusPatrol even offers drivers a way to review their offense online.

So far, five districts have signed up, with more expected to join in the coming weeks, company officials said. The participating districts are:

• North Shore
• Hicksville
• Jericho
• Farmingdale
• Plainview-Old Bethpage

"Through the years, we have heard from drivers and parents about isolated incidents of cars passing a stopped school bus within the Farmingdale School District. Our goal is student safety. If one vehicle passes a stopped school bus that is one too many for us," Farmingdale schools Superintendent Paul Defendini told Patch. "We believe deploying this program within the Farmingdale School District will help mitigate further incidents."

The way the program works:

• Every incident is reviewed by law enforcement before a violation notice is issued to the offender. The technology, installation, and maintenance are provided at no cost to the school district or taxpayers.
• For the first 30 days, only warning violations with no monetary penalty are mailed to vehicle owners whose cars are observed illegally passing a stopped school bus.
• For these five districts, live ticketing will begin June 1.

New York State law requires that motorists stop at least 20 feet away from a stopped school bus with its red lights flashing and stop-arm deployed.

However, each year, thousands of children are put at risk due to reckless and illegal driver behavior around school buses. According to the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee, school buses are illegally passed 50,000 times each day in New York State.

The law states that the penalty for breaking the law as captured by the school bus stop-arm camera is assigned to the vehicle owner, and it comes with a minimum civil penalty of $250.

Driver’s license points or insurance rates cannot be affected through the stop-arm camera civil enforcement.

In addition, districts will benefit from additional safety features, such as internal cameras to monitor dangerous activity onboard the bus, company officials said.

"Thank you to our transportation department for being so forward-thinking," said Christopher Zublionis, superintendent at North Shore School District. "We are excited to launch this initiative for the safety of our students."

The new safety initiative follows the success of similar school bus safety programs on Long Island, including Suffolk County, the Town of Hempstead, the City of Long Beach, and the City of Glen Cove.

"We’re proud to partner with the Town of Oyster Bay to tackle reckless motorist behavior around school buses," said Karoon Monfared, CEO at BusPatrol. “This partnership is a win-win for student safety and is proven to significantly reduce the rate of violations, with our longest-running program, Suffolk County, reporting a 40% reduction in violations since the start of the program.”

Learn more about the School Bus Safety Program in Town of Oyster Bay here: School Bus Safety Program – Town of Oyster Bay (oysterbaytown.com)

You can find more information about BusPatrol at www.buspatrol.com.