Albany County has seen a significant increase in motorists passing stopped school buses in recent months. Now, a program to place cameras on buses' stop-arms to catch drivers in the act is expanding.
Speaking at the Colonie Village Fire Company Monday, Albany County Executive Dan McCoy said the number of vehicles passing school buses in the Capital Region is too high, and only keeps increasing.
"Numbers do not lie, these numbers do not lie. So we- we average about 900 tickets a month, we're averaging about 900 tickets a month. That's, you know, that's between 53 and 55 buses right here in the school district," McCoy said.
Stop arm cameras are installed below a school bus’ STOP sign and are activated when the red lights are on, taking pictures of any vehicle that passes while the lights are activated. A front camera photographs the vehicle and the activated sign, and a rear camera catches license plate pictures.
South Colonie was the first school district to install the cameras in September 2022. Guilderland and Bethlehem recently joined the program. McCoy, a Democrat, says that he hopes all schools in the area will participate, and noted it comes as the state pursues its own initiative to prevent the problem.
“This Thursday's operation Safestop, a statewide effort when police officers on board school buses and marked and unmarked patrol units are selecting certain school routes and they're going to be getting illegal people violating don’t pass," McCoy said.
Republican Colonie Town Supervisor Peter Crummey says despite the fines, the project isn’t about making money.
"It’s not about punishment. This program is about education for the safety of our most vulnerable, our children," Crummey said.
McCoy says the steep fine is intentional.
"So the first penalty is 250 dollars, like we talked about before, and additional violations within 18 months will increase the violation by 25 dollars, going up to 300," McCoy said.
McCoy noted that income from the effort shows the extent of the problem.
“This is just Colonie and one month in Bethlehem. We've taken in over $700,000. Our portion of it is 40%, which comes out to $280,000. That’s a problem. We need to fix it," McCoy said.
McCoy says the goal is to stop drivers from dangerously passing school buses.
“It hasn’t been getting better, which is why we have launched an education campaign. If you look over here with CDTA, on the back of the buses, we're gonna- we're gonna get into the numbers of how much money is been coming in and what we're doing with it, because it's important that people know," McCoy said.
McCoy says it’s a statewide problem.
“Statistically speaking we have over 50,000 drivers illegally past school buses every year in the state of New York only,” he said.
McCoy says that the program will run as long as the violations continue.
“I hope there's a day that we don't have to do this. But the amount of numbers that we have... it's going to be more alarming as you see more schools get on board," McCoy said.
