School District Adds Cameras To Prevent Bus Stop Violations

There is nothing more frustrating or dangerous to local youth than motorists failing to observe a school bus stop sign deployed as children are entering and exiting a school bus.

The problem has increased through the years and another tool to prevent these incidents has been added to the Sullivan School District buses with the addition of the REI Camera systems mounted just to the rear of the actual stop sign arms.

Sullivan School District Transportation Director Ben Hampton announced this week that the district has purchased and installed two cameras with three more being installed at press time to help prevent these stop sign violations from happening while reducing the chances a child will get injured.

“These cameras are being installed on the in town routes at this time, where most of our violations are occurring,” said Hampton. “Bus drivers have trouble catching the driver’s license plates during a violation occurring, and in fact, we had one bus driver record incidents with their cell phone sitting on the dash of the bus with video rolling.”

Hampton reported that the transportation department had some funds available for the purchases and began receiving them during Christmas break in December.

The Sullivan School District currently has 22 buses in the fleet, with 17 running bus routes daily.

“The first camera installed has already caught a couple of violations that occurred with very good photographs for law enforcement to identify the license plate, violation and view of motorist,” said Hampton.

“The Missouri State Highway Patrol states that on a violation we don’t have to have a picture of the driver but of the driver’s license plate and the person whom the vehicle is registered to will be the one to receive the ticket and or fines associated with the violation.”

According to Hampton, the bus stop sign violation carries a fine up to $500, up to six points off a driver’s license and mandatory in person court appearance.

“We want to get the word out to the public to be alert and obey these bus stop signs,” said Hampton. “We’re not looking to have law enforcement write tickets. We just want to save children’s lives and these cameras are a small price to pay in order to save them or prevent injury.”

The Sullivan School District has been proactive with the use of camera systems in the bus fleet as each bus is equipped with four cameras on the inside of the bus to capture anything transpiring on the bus routes in question.