The Laurel County school district is using cameras on stop sign arms in an effort to keep people from driving past stopped school buses.
Provided by Laurel County Schools
Despite it being illegal to drive past a school bus when its stop sign is out, Laurel County school buses saw 8 to 10 drivers pass them each week during stops last year.
That figure was uncomfortably high for those within the school district, so they decided to put cameras on the outside of all 107 buses to capture traffic violations in an effort to improve student safety.
“We’re looking at education and also the ability to enforce when there’s been violations of the law,” said Rob Hale, the director of transportation with the Laurel County School District.
The plan for increasing child safety around school buses began about 18 months ago. After an adequate amount of time to do research and develop technology, Hale and others gave a presentation to the school board in spring and their idea was approved.
The cameras were installed during summer break.
“They’re about the size of a flip phone and they mount to the side of the bus,” Hale said.
The cameras are dormant until the stop sign on the side of the bus comes out, ta which point the cameras are activated into alert mode. While in alert mode, the camera monitors traffic but doesn’t actually record footage. The cameras only record when traffic violations are committed.
“When those lights begin flashing yellow, every driver needs to prepare to stop because if there’s a child present, then they could be further put in danger if they don’t follow and obey the traffic laws,” Hale said.
If a camera records a violation, the school district’s police department will review the footage and take the evidence to the Laurel County Attorney’s Office. The county attorney’s office will decide if citations should be issued based on the video.
The Kentucky Department of Education allows school districts to install cameras on the inside and outside of the school bus, according to Elisa Hanley, KDE’s Pupil Transportation Branch manager.
“Cameras are for the safety of everyone,” Hanley said. “They provide school districts with the ability to verify issues, provide training to drivers and to assist in school bus accidents.”
When the KDE gets notification of an incident, the first thing they ask if there was a camera to pull footage from, Hanley said.
“The camera systems can save a district millions of dollars in a lawsuit,” Hanley said. “It also can provide law enforcement and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) with information if there is a serious accident.”
Laurel County Public Schools began classes Thursday. As of Friday afternoon, the cameras haven’t recorded any violations.
“Police departments were formed for safety and security of the children, and obviously that doesn’t end in the classroom.,” said Dan Smoot, police chief for the Laurel County Schools Police Department. “It starts when we pick them up at home and ends when we drop them off at home.”