Officials have a warning for the new school year: be careful around buses and students.
Outside Bethlehem High School on Thursday, Albany County Executive Dan McCoy highlighted a program that has added stop-arm cameras to buses in recent years.
The Democrat says while the numbers have fallen from the 900-per-month average of drivers passing stopped school buses throughout the county between the start of the program in September 2022 and April 2023, even one is too many.
“We are dancing with the devil every day, and people are like, ‘Why are you having a press conference?’ Because these bus drivers have a stressful job enough as it is, making sure they pick the kids up, making sure they're safe, making sure they get off the bus safe, get on the bus safe, keeping it quiet,” McCoy said.
Districts participating include North and South Colonie, Berne-Knox-Westerlo, Voorheesville, Guilderland, and Bethlehem. Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk also has its own stop-arm camera program.
McCoy says the spike in infractions may have been due to years of isolation caused by the COVID pandemic.
County Legislature Chair Joanne Cunningham, a fellow Democrat, is a former school board member in Bethlehem. She says as a mother of students who graduated from there, safety was always a worry.
“We're concerned about the safety of them while they're in school, but we're also concerned for their trip to school,” Cunningham said.
McCoy says the county’s portion of the money generated by fines will go to driver education.
“The schools I listed- any of those schools- kids sign up for defensive driving, we will pay for it, and we'll encourage these kids to go and get this course. You know, you go, you pass, and then you submit it to us, and we will reimburse you for your course,” McCoy said.
Bethlehem superintendent Jody Monroe says children are unpredictable and may dart out into roadways without warning.
“We have reduced speed limits in our school zones that are designed to give drivers more reaction time and help prevent accidents. We urge drivers to obey these lower speed limits and use extra caution in and around our school parking lots,” Monroe said.
County Legislator Matt Miller, a Democrat whose 36th District includes Selkirk, South Bethlehem, Delmar, and Glenmont, cosponsored the stop-arm camera legislation.
“Sometimes people go, ‘Oh, I got a 90 in 55, you know, I was really revving it up’. They don't tell people ‘I got a ticket for going around a school bus’ because they know you're endangering their own kids, their friends’ kids, whoever it may be. Nobody wants to be known for endangering children,” Miller said.
Miller says he feels not all drivers purposefully passed stopped buses.
“If you're on a six lane, you know, six lanes across, even Central Ave is a good example. You know, four lanes across, the bus stops in the southbound lane on the sidewalk, and you're in that northbound lane, you may not even sometimes maybe see the bus,” Miller said.
He adds the county doesn’t automatically send out tickets – each infraction is reviewed first. Drivers who receive tickets are also emailed the video of the incident.
McCoy also announced two other efforts Thursday — a new youth violence prevention initiative, and the county’s reimbursement of a school resource officer for Berne-Knox-Westerlo.
