Polk County is cracking down on drivers who illegally pass stopped school buses. When the new school year begins next month, all 511 buses in the school district’s fleet will be equipped with cameras that start recording when the stop arm has been extended.
Drivers will get written warnings from Aug. 12 through Sept. 24. But after that, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office will issue $225 citations to the registered owners of vehicles caught passing stopped buses.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article indicated citations would incur a $198 fee, based on earlier information provided by Polk County Public Schools.
Why it matters: Approximately 50,000 Polk County students ride school buses each day during the academic year. But local drivers regularly flout laws about stopping for school buses.
School Superintendent Fred Heid said that during a single school day last year — when the district collected data for the camera proposal — bus drivers documented more than 400 instances of motorists unsafely passing a school bus after it had stopped.
‘Unprecedented and unacceptable’: Last year was exceptionally tragic for Polk County Public Schools.
“We had an unprecedented number of student fatalities due to vehicular and pedestrian issues,” Heid said somberly at a news conference Wednesday. “We lost 22 students last year alone to traffic fatalities. … The number of viewings and funerals that we’ve attended this last year is unprecedented and unacceptable.”
Only one case was directly related to a driver passing a stopped school bus, but Heid said road safety is the district’s biggest concern. “We need to take every single step possible to ensure the safety of our children as they travel to and from school each day,” Heid said.
Safe Stop program: Sheriff Grady Judd said he has opposed red-light cameras at intersections, but he wholeheartedly supports the school bus camera initiative because it is so important to keep children safe.
Addressing drivers, he said: “The reality is, we love y’all. We don’t want to give you a traffic citation. Just stop for the school bus. ‘Cause as much as we love you, we love the safety of those children more.”
How it works: Matt Wright, a spokesman for Verra Mobility Corp., the company supplying the technology, said the cameras are mounted on the side of the buses and do not start recording until the stop arm is fully extended.
If a car is filmed passing the school bus, a Polk County Sheriff’s deputy will review the footage and decide whether to issue a $225 citation to the registered owner of the vehicle. Drivers who are cited can view the video online. If someone else was driving the car, they can fill out a form identifying the actual driver.
“What you see is that 98% of people that violate the school bus, receive a citation, and pay it do not get a second one,” Wright said. “It changes that driver’s behavior long term.”
What is the law? Vehicles must always stop for a school bus if they are traveling in the same direction as the bus, and the swing arm with the red octagonal stop sign is extended.
Judd said for drivers traveling in the opposite direction, it depends on whether there is a median in the road. If there is a grassy or concrete median, drivers traveling in the opposite direction of the bus do not have to stop. But if the road is flat and there is only a painted line dividing it, all drivers in both directions must stop.
How much do the cameras cost? The camera initiative will be self-funding, so it will not cost the school district anything. Verra charges a flat fee of $200 per camera per month to install and operate the cameras, but that expense will be covered through payments from violation revenues.
Judd said the costs associated with deputies reviewing the footage will also be covered, but he added, “The goal here is not a money grab at all. It’s very limited how the money can be spent to prohibit such a money grab.”
About Verra Mobility: Verra Mobility (NASDAQ: VRRM) — formerly known as American Traffic Solutions or ATS — is the same company that provides red light cameras and license plate readers to the city of Lakeland.
See the news conference
Heid and Judd announced the new program in a 17-minute news conference on Wednesday. See it here.
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Anyone who cannot stop for a school bus needs their license revoked. Permanently.