Albany County is expanding its efforts to prevent drivers from passing school buses.
All cars. All directions. Must stop. It’s the law.
That’s the message emblazoned on a new series of bright yellow shirts and red lunchboxes in Albany County. It adds to an existing ad campaign on CDTA buses and stop arm cameras on school buses, which County Executive Dan McCoy says is proving insufficient.
“Since September, we've had nearly 6,000 tickets issued- 6,000 tickets. And unfortunately, I keep hoping that we're going to have a press conference where we're not talking about the violations,” McCoy said.
That totals over a million dollars in fines, of which the county has received more than $400,000. The Democrat stresses it’s not about the money.
“Just donate back to your school and stop driving by the school buses,” McCoy said.
Also included in the efforts is this year’s edition of Operation SafeStop.
“A statewide effort when police officers are onboard school buses, in marked and unmarked patrol units and select buses routes that have historic illegal passing violations,” McCoy said.
McCoy showed a video Monday of two students almost being hit by a speeding car passing a bus with its red flashers on, saying such incidents have spiked since the pandemic.
“I think people from being shut down and coming back out driving again, I would like to look at the data analytics to look at whether or not we had less tickets pre-COVID versus after COVID,” McCoy said.
Guilderland Assistant Superintendent for Business Andrew Van Alstyne says reality is not meeting his expectations for the rollout of stop arm cameras.
“For the first few weeks, it was, hey, this program is coming,” Van Alstyne said. "The ticket will be this, you got caught doing this, you know, starting this date going forward, there'll be tickets. We had thought there would be a steep drop off and there really hasn't been. Now, not enough time has passed to see what will happen next year, but generally, the rate of tickets seems like it's been fairly steady."
Van Alstyne says, while there are still challenges district-wide, certain roads are proving to be a tougher nut to crack, like Western Avenue.
Jeff Jamison is a lawyer and counsel to the county executive. He says demographic data should be collected as part of the ticketing process.
“We should be able to look at data analytics, is it more men? Is it more women? Is it more younger people? Is it more older people?” Jamison asked.
Mary Rozak, McCoy’s Communications Director, says misconceptions remain to be addressed.
“When people are driving and they see a school bus on one side of the road- let's take a four-lane highway, two in each direction, [they think], ‘oh I don't need to stop. I don't need to stop, it's on the other side.’ Not true. Every car needs to stop when the stop arm is out and the lights are flashing and there are students getting on or off the bus,” Rozak said.
That includes divided highways.
First-time violations will incur $250 fines. Additional violations within 18 months will increase the fine $25 each time, up to a maximum of $300.
“The program will be a true success when we don't have to issue any tickets,” McCoy said.
