No one wants to injure or kill a child going to or from school. But we put thousands of our children at risk daily by passing a stopped school bus with their flashing red lights and stop signs. While the number of actual crashes caused by this violation is low, the potential for injury or death is high. The following information was sent to me by Dominic Barse, former superintendent of transportation for Malone Central School District.

The national association representing state directors of pupil transportation recently released the results of its tenth survey on illegal passing of school buses. In 34 states throughout the country, over 22% of the nation’s school bus drivers participated in a one-day survey to report motorists who passed their stopped school buses. In the survey, 79,859 school bus drivers reported that 51,593 vehicles passed their buses illegally on a single day during the 2021-22 school year. Adjusting for 100% of the school bus drivers in the U.S., we would have seen just over 232,000 illegal passings in both 2019 and 2022. Throughout a 180-day school year, these sample results point to more than 41.8 million violations per year among America’s motoring public.

These numbers, when adjusted for 100% of the school bus drivers across the country, show that unfortunately illegal passings of stopped school buses are at an epidemic level. The safety of our nation’s children is put into question simply because motorists are either not paying attention or are in a hurry.

“This is simply unacceptable,” said Pat McManamon, president of the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services.

“Motorists must understand the rules of the road and must follow them every single day,” he continued.

The survey results have brought greater attention by state and federal policy makers to the need for greater safety countermeasures. A growing number of states are attempting to catch and punish motorists who pass stopped school buses by allowing cameras to be placed on the outside of the bus to record such illegal passing. At least 24 states, including New York, have school bus stop-arm camera laws.

Camera enforcement is a great idea, but unfortunately, New York state makes it quite cumbersome to accomplish. To utilize stop-arm cameras for enforcement, section 1174a of state Vehicle and Traffic Law requires the following:

¯ All municipalities must enact a local law or ordinance establishing a school bus camera program to record illegal passing of school buses.

¯ Installation of signage at each roadway entrance of the boundaries of each municipality giving notice that school bus photo violation monitoring systems are used to enforce violations of passing stopped school buses.

¯ Localities must adopt and enforce measures to protect the identity and identifying information.

To accomplish the above an outside contractor would be required to administer the program, the cost of which would come from driver fines. In our rural school districts, there are not enough illegal passes to warrant such a program under the conditions allowable. The program will likely be implemented in more populous areas.