First day of school

First day of school and the outside Camera  system went off 3 times. Just during the morning runs.  That’s $900 for just this morning.  

The state will be mailing out the tickets since the new system doesn’t allow me any discretion

I used to have to write the driver up and if they fight the ticket be willing to go and testify.  

The new system takes two pictures. One of the license plate and car. One of the driver and the stop arm. 

In reply to frenchyd :

Here’s what the new system looks like from the outside. The detector and camera under the stop arm takes the first set of pictures. The camera on the top of the rear of the bus takes the other set.  

While I’m sure  you can fight the ticket, since they send you both pictures with the citation you’re going to just add court costs. 

I’d feel bad except nation wide an average of 1400 kids are injured or killed within 10 feet of the school bus  each year. While  it’s a rare year when anyone inside the bus is.  ( that’s the justification for no seat belts in the big buses.). 

Is it possible that somebody could get trapped on the side of the bus due to traffic? 

In reply to frenchyd :

I normally hate ticket cameras but I have no sympathy for people passing stopped school buses.  As drivers become more distracted maybe some fines will get them to pay attention. 

To clarify: If you stop at a red light and discharge students or something like that. The car stopped next to you would've been obeying the law right up until the arm came out.

Wally said:

In reply to frenchyd :

I normally hate ticket cameras but I have no sympathy for people passing stopped school buses.  As drivers become more distracted maybe some fines will get them to pay attention. 

Yeah, I feel the same way.  But while speeding and red light cameras have dubious value, this might actually help.  

But there also needs to be a big old sign on the front and back of the bus that says something like "WARNING: BUS EQUIPPED WITH VIDEO CAMERAS.  PASSING A STOPPED BUS WITH LIGHTS FLASHING WILL RESULT IN A $300 FINE"

Sounds like a pretty nifty camera system.

How clear the pictures?

In reply to Brett_Murphy :

I don’t know how the school bus system works but here traffic cameras now are video. They send the summons with a still picture then you can go to a website and watch 30 or so seconds of the infraction to verify that you were moving.  

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

Why advertise something that’s already a known violation? If the driver isn’t paying attention to the flashing reds are they really going to read a large warning?

1SlowVW said:

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

Why advertise something that’s already a known violation? If the driver isn’t paying attention to the flashing reds are they really going to read a large warning?

 

Why not?  Is the goal to prevent people from passing a stopped school bus, or to make money?  

Around here, most of the red light and speed cameras are preceded at some distance with a big warning sign.  Speeding and running red lights are known violations, but they let you know there's a camera there anyway.  Of course, it's amazing that people are fully armed with the knowledge that they are being watched, and they do something ilegal anyway.  

Wally said:

In reply to Brett_Murphy :

I don’t know how the school bus system works but here traffic cameras now are video. They send the summons with a still picture then you can go to a website and watch 30 or so seconds of the infraction to verify that you were moving.  

Same here.  I got a red light ticket a few years ago and was going to contest the thing, as I had no recollection of running said light.  Then I went online and watched the video- it showed my car making a right turn on red without coming to a full and complete stop first.  *sigh*  Yep.  

Theft is illegal, but I'm getting reports of theft at one of my stores at least once a night.

If someone is going to break a law, they're gonna do it with or without a sign that says not to.

Agree.  People don't illegally pass a stopped school bus because they don't know it's wrong to do so.  They illegally pass a stopped school bus because A) They're too distracted to actually see a 45-foot long yellow bus, or B) They're in a hurry and far more important than some dang kids.

Either way, making sure they get a ticket is a good thing. 

Yay, frenchyd!  My hat is off to you, sir!

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

When I worked at a small hobby shop, we had a sign that said something to the effect of, "SHOPLIFTERS WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW" or "... KILLED AND EATEN" or some E36 M3 like that. You'd think that would've stopped it from happening, but no, dudes kept trying to walk out with stuff tucked in their pants, jackets, shirts, etc.

Signage does not stop lawbreakers from doing what they're already intent on doing. It's not like this is a new law they don't know about... 

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

So why not put the warning on all buses and only put cameras on some? 

1SlowVW said:

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

So why not put the warning on all buses and only put cameras on some? 

 

Wouldn't hurt.

I'm normally not of the "we must spend whatever is necessary, even if we only save 1 life!" mentality, but in this case, a sign would be very cheap, and possibly stop at least one person from doing something very stupid and dangerous.  

I do see people slow down when they see that speeding camera sign.  

In Ontario they solve this problem through hyper-penalization: Each school bus is a rolling legal disaster area and you'll be nuked from orbit with fines and points and jail time and angry possums put down your pants if you do anything wrong near them, such as passing while the sign is out/lights are on. Gets a bit nerve-wracking if you're on the road around 3pm.

GameboyRMH said:

In Ontario they solve this problem through hyper-penalization: Each school bus is a rolling legal disaster area and you'll be nuked from orbit with fines and points and jail time and angry possums put down your pants if you do anything wrong near them, such as passing while the sign is out/lights are on. Gets a bit nerve-wracking if you're on the road around 3pm.

Angry possums put down the pants of perpetrators?  I take back everything bad I ever said about Canada.  They have earned my admiration and respect!

I cried when they showed the every day picture of the twin 6-year old boys that got killed with this goof.  

Book ‘em Danno. 

https://www.wthr.com/article/driver-accused-crash-killed-3-children-fulton-county-bus-stop-out-bond

Brett_Murphy said:

Is it possible that somebody could get trapped on the side of the bus due to traffic? 

We are not allowed to drop anyplace other than scheduled stops.  But we can pick up and drop without using the red lights. It’s called a turn lane stop. & 4 way yellow flashers are all that’s needed.  Can only be used under certain circumstances.  

Brett_Murphy said:

To clarify: If you stop at a red light and discharge students or something like that. The car stopped next to you would've been obeying the law right up until the arm came out.

Again only at scheduled stops. But to answer your question the yellows would have been flashing, warning of a pending stop from 15-45 seconds before the stop.  The reds don’t come on until the door is opened and the door won’t open until the bus is at a full stop. 

In reply to FuzzWuzzy :

The pictures I’ve seen are pretty clear. I can often tell what color eyes the driver has  and facial features such as moles etc. 

part of our pre-trip bus inspection is to clean the lenses on both camera’s but I haven’t seen them in a snow storm yet.  

volvoclearinghouse said:

Wally said:

In reply to frenchyd :

I normally hate ticket cameras but I have no sympathy for people passing stopped school buses.  As drivers become more distracted maybe some fines will get them to pay attention. 

Yeah, I feel the same way.  But while speeding and red light cameras have dubious value, this might actually help.  

But there also needs to be a big old sign on the front and back of the bus that says something like "WARNING: BUS EQUIPPED WITH VIDEO CAMERAS.  PASSING A STOPPED BUS WITH LIGHTS FLASHING WILL RESULT IN A $300 FINE"

It’s not the money, ( says the worlds tightest cheapskate)  but I get to know these kids.  I really don’t want them hurt, •••• or worse.  

Remarkably it’s not the speeding kids or big shot with the fancy car that’s the worst offender, it’s the Soccer mom in the mini van!   The one that never gets a ticket because she’s cute or has a good excuse at the ready.  

3 for 3 it was a woman who  ran the stop arm this morning.  

So far this afternoon no one has run it but this is very residential. Tight narrow roads. I can slightly angle my bus and pretty well block the whole road.  

Just for information I don’t text while driving. I’m waiting for my next tier of children.  Stopped,  Engine off, doors open. Eating my lunch. 

If I did text while driving it’s doubtful I’d get one text out before being told to park the bus and be relieved.   5 camera’s inside, Too.  

In 1971, when I was in 7th grade, there were two school buses that ran almost the same route because of the number of kids in that area.  We lived along a very busy highway, my house was right on the highway, the bus stopped right in front of my house and let off my brother, sister, and I.  One bus dropped off kids on one side of the highway and the other, the other side.  

One day one kid, who was supposed to catch the other bus, took our bus instead.  He wanted to get home 10 minutes early since my bus left first. The problem was his house was down a street across the busy 4 lane hwy.   

So at the stop, the bus with fully extended flashing signs, he jumps out the bus to run across the street.  The bus driver didn't know the kid was going to do this because he was hiding behind a seat,  and it happened really fast.  I watched the whole thing happen in slow motion, as they say.

So right when the kid went to cross the open lane where everyone was supposed to be stopped a car blew by the bus and caught the kid in mid stride.  Whacked him on the leading edge of his knee so hard he flew down spinning like a top.    Driver stopped.  Police and ambulance  came.  Kid was in pain but somehow nothing was broken.  He didn't want his parents to know and basically hobbled away.

  Driver of the car was ticketed of course since the bus driver was an excellent witness and bus driving was his moon-lighting job after he did his 8 hour shift as a local policeman.  

I occasionally bring this up to my children, when doing a safety lecture, how, if that kid had been 1/2 second faster, he would be probably been killed right in front of me.   

This kid was always doing dumb things and eventually lost a leg in a motorcycle accident.   I found out about the motorcycle accident when talking to his sister at our 8th grade class 40th reunion and mentioned the school bus thing.  She never knew it happened and then told me about the lost leg accident.