State strengthens school bus camera law |
On Board Online • May 20, 2024
By Alan Wechsler
Special Correspondent
In the past few years, school districts in New York State have installed cameras on more than one in five school buses. Recent action by the state Legislature appears to have removed questions on whether evidence from such cameras is enough to make a traffic ticket stick.
Typically, bus cameras are activated when the flashing lights are on and the "stop" bar is extended. Cameras capture images of any vehicles that pass the stopped school bus. Municipalities can use the bus camera evidence to mail a $250 (no points) ticket to the vehicle owner. This method of traffic law enforcement is similar to use of red-light cameras.
According to state Department of Motor Vehicles, the number of tickets given out for passing a school bus has risen slightly from 2,155 in 2021 to 2,510 (a preliminary figure) in 2023.
But the viability of bus camera evidence was thrown into question in November, when the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court dismissed a ticket that was issued to Alfred Croce, a resident of Suffolk County. An attorney representing himself, Croce had argued that the stills and videos of his car failed to prove that (1) the bus his car passed was a properly marked school bus or that (2) it was loading or unloading students at the time that his car passed the bus.
In the wake of that Appellate Division decision, local judges around the state began dismissing bus tickets. For instance, the Albany Times Union recently reported that a Colonie town judge dismissed all the tickets on his docket in early March after the prosecutor could not offer proof that the bus in one case was loading or unloading children at the time the driver passed it.
During late April, members of the Legislature stepped in. In a provision of the 2025 state budget, they added language that states that if a bus camera documents that a vehicle passed a stopped school bus, "there shall be a rebuttable presumption that such school bus was stopped for the purpose of receiving or discharging any passengers or because a school bus in front of it had stopped to receive or discharge any passengers." The burden of proof shifts to motorists, who will have to present evidence that children were not exiting when their car passed a stopped bus.
The Legislature also extended the camera law until the end of 2029.
The largest maker of cameras for school buses in the U.S. is BusPatrol America, which has offices in Lorton, Virginia, and Hauppauge, N.Y. Its products are installed on 30,000 school buses in 16 states, according to the company, including 10,000 buses in New York. The company was founded in 2017 and now serves about 90 percent of the market, according to the company, one of a half-dozen providers of this service.
The company can only operate in a state when legislators create a law authorizing local officials to issue tickets based on photographic evidence, said Steve Randazzo, chief growth officer.
"It's a form of automated photo enforcement that, when legalized at the state level, allows communities to better police around the school buses," Randazzo said. "People tend to drive recklessly around school buses when you're supposed to stop. In some places where there isn't a lot of police enforcement, it's really hard to station live law enforcement around school buses."
Violators receive a ticket in the mail containing three photos of their car (but not identifying the driver). A video of the incident is also available to view online. The ticket is similar to a parking ticket, with no impact on points or insurance. The ticket is handled by BusPatrol in partnership with the local municipality, which shares in the revenues.
One study of Suffolk County, which introduced the cameras in 2021, showed that stopped-bus violations were reduced by 42 percent in the three years since, according to BusPatrol.
"It's intended to hit you in the wallet," Randazzo said. "In our experience it's dramatically transformed driving behavior."
Randazzo said he was surprised by the Croce court ruling, and gratified by the action of the Legislature. "We all know school bus stop-arm cameras are not installed on ice cream trucks," Randazzo said. "It threw people in authority for a loop that that argument would actually carry much weight. It was just spooking some people. That's when the state stepped in."