Last year, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed legislation that would let towns and cities use video monitoring to track down drivers who fail to stop for school buses. This week, a city in western Massachusetts became the first to take full-advantage.
Standing before a newly-upgraded Chicopee Public Schools bus, Mayor John Vieau and other city officials gathered Wednesday to mark what they consider a first-in-the-state milestone.
The city has signed a contract with school bus safety equipment company BusPatrol — a deal that will equip the school district’s 74 vehicle busing fleet with cameras capable to tracking drivers who illegally pass stopped school buses.
“Our goal is simple: prevent dangerous driving and make our roads safer for every single student, every child in Chicopee that uses our busses,” Vieau said, standing before a Five Star Bus vehicle sporting newly-welded cameras on its side and rear. “This program is about changing behavior, raising awareness and sending a clear message: in Chicopee we stop for our school busses … no exceptions.”
According to Vieau’s office, Chicopee is the first municipality in Massachusetts to launch a full-bodied “Bus Stop Arm Safety Program,” taking advantage of legislation Healey signed into law in January 2025.
The legislation cracks down on drivers who can’t wait when a bus’s stop sign is extended and lit up, and students are either getting on or disembarking.
Getting caught already meant up to a $250 fine for first-time offenders, though a police officer witnessing said infraction has often been a deciding factor.
Thanks to last year’s legislation being signed, towns and cities can install video monitoring systems to track said violations as they happen, leaving it up to local police to review the footage and issue a citation.
“What you just described does not skip zip codes – it happens everywhere: big/small communities, large cities, small towns…” says Michael Gorman, Senior Director of Government Relations for BusPatrol. “It happens because, for a variety of reasons, people are indifferent. They're staring at their phones, they're not paying attention appropriately, they're not respectful of the law. This will bring them back to earth in terms of what their obligation is as a driver.”
Gorman says in Chicopee, at least ten buses have been outfitted with cameras so far.
Wednesday’s announcement was coupled with a demonstration at Chicopee Comprehensive High School, complete with a van passing by a camera-equipped bus.
“What in effect just happened is, by law, that car should have stopped when the stop-arm was extended,” he said after the van coasted by. “That's his obligation as a driver in Massachusetts and anywhere. The second he did not stop, the cameras in the front, the back and the sides captured that moment...”
The equipment reportedly costs about $32,000 per bus, but officials say it will effectively be covered by citations, making it a “violator-funded” program.
Chicopee’s technically not the first city to roll out buses with such equipment. Peabody and Salem – both similar in size to Chicopee – previously hosted pilot programs, with both showing an average of three “illegal passes per bus per day.”
For @WAMCRadio: In Chicopee, city, school & bus co. officials are unveiling the city's bus stop arm safety program, which goes live on April 1. Five Star Buses have been outfitted w/cameras designed to capture drivers passing while stop signs are extended with a $250 fine to boot pic.twitter.com/s6wyTH9jWG
— James Paleologopoulos (@WAMC_J_Paleo) February 25, 2026
For Chicopee Public Schools Superintendent Marcus Ware, getting the program up and running has been “paramount” for student safety — all while offering a chance to instill better driving habits in the community.
"It's not about punishment. I think in our society, we are quick to say, '... why does this have to go to this level?'" he told WAMC. "Unfortunately, I think people are distracted. I think there's a lot of stimuli that are going on in day-to-day communications, whether it's your phone, whether it's not. When you're driving, we have to stop, we have to slow down and I think that this is ... about prevention and protection, not punishment."
Citing its own data, BusPatrol says 90 percent of the time, first-time offenders never repeat bus stop arm violations.
Vieau tells WAMC the city’s program will be fully up and running by early April, with all 74 district vehicles equipped with cameras by the summer.
