Albany County began putting cameras in the stop arms of school buses in 2022 to catch drivers violating traffic law. County Executive Dan McCoy said at a press conference Tuesday that the program has been a success.
On March 6, Wyatt Bunce, a student at Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk Middle School, was getting off the bus when he saw a car speeding towards him.
“When I heard the car, I was like, 'Where was it coming from?' I looked to this side, and I saw it, and the first thing I was thinking of was just running. So I ran," he said. "Luckily, I missed the car by, almost like, a couple meters.”
Bunce’s mother, Amanda Reed, recounted the aftermath of her son’s near miss right in their driveway.
“He came in, and the first words he said to me were, I almost died today," she said. "And I thought, 'What are you talking about,' and then he was trying to explain it to me, and we walked out front, and he showed me exactly where the man had went through.”
Reed said if not for the cameras on the school bus, the driver may never have been caught.
“He thought he was going to get away with it," she said. "I’m not him, I don’t know, but he thought that there’s no cameras in this rural area, and thank God there were, because RCS just got those cameras on this school year.”
Four years ago, Albany County partnered with BusPatrol, a safety technology company that uses AI-powered cameras to document vehicles illegally passing busses. Seven school districts have joined the program, with the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk district being the latest to join in 2025. More than 46,000 tickets had been doled out to drivers who do not stop near buses.
The driver who sped past Amanda Reed’s home last month, a 51-year-old man from Poughkeepsie, has been charged with reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child, and has been issued tickets for passing a stopped school bus. Although Bunce was able to come out of the incident unscathed, Albany County Executive Dan McCoy says the near miss was the kind of incident he was hoping to prevent by installing cameras in school bus stop arms.
“We started partnering with the school districts in 2022 stop armed cameras were installed on school busses," he said. "They would take the video of passing the bus. It's the law. People should stop. They don't. We've learned a lot. We issued over 46,000 tickets since this started. Think about that: 46,000 tickets. Unfortunately, I keep saying it's a matter of time before something tragic happens, and that's the last thing I want to stand here and say, 'Hey, I told you I was right.'”
The first violation for speeding past a stopped school bus can result in a $250 fine. Additional violations within an 18-month period increase the fine by $25 each.
According to McCoy, 94% of first-time offenders do not have a second violation. He says the revenue generated from these tickets has gone towards educating drivers through an awareness campaign, and also towards Albany County's school districts.
"We made a conscious decision that we use these funds to educate the community through bags and shirts, billboards, commercials, but more importantly, working with the school districts, how we can help them bringing back driver education," he said.
Reed, a nurse who has previously worked as an EMT, said she hopes drivers understand the potential consequences of speeding near a school bus.
“I understand that we have places to be and things to do," she said. "We're busy. But it's not a matter of, 'Oh, I just got a $225 ticket' or, 'Oh, you know, now I'm late,' or even, 'Oh, I crashed my car,' especially in this instance, like you almost killed my son. And I need everyone to remember that that is the potential every time you pass that bus, it's not dropping off hopes and dreams, it's dropping off somebody's whole world.”
