School Bus Stop Arm Cameras

Summary

►Vehicles passing stopped school buses continues to be a problem, despite various attempts at deterrence

►Stop arm cameras are a solution that will capture violations and improve student safety

►Program is at no cost to the County, and there may be a small amount of revenue

National Violation Statistics

►NASDPTS conducted studies in 2011, 2012 2011 study

►112,000 buses in 28 states►Over 76,000 violations occurred in a single day

2012 study►99,000 buses in 28 states►Over 88,000 violations occurred in a single day

►If these are representative, nearly 16 million violations occur in a school year!

Virginia Violation Statistics

►Virginia participated in the NASDPTS study 2011 results

►455 buses studied►449 vehicles passed stopped buses►10 passes occurred on the right (door) side

2012 results►21 buses studied►13 vehicles passed stopped buses

Local Violation Statistics

►ACPS Transportation works closely with ACPD

►Mechanism in place for drivers to report passing incidents to ACPD 49 violations reported in 2010-11 73 violations reported in 2011-12 46 violation reported YTD (12/06/2012)

Overview of Current Process

►Requires driver to divert attention from students Difficult to obtain all information needed to

cite Drivers may have to miss work for court

►Labor intensive Driver writes report ACPD reviews and issues citation/summons All parties must appear in court

Overview of Stop Arm Cameras

►Sealed, contained camera unit mounted on outside of bus

►Hard drive recording device installed inside the bus

►Stop arm activation turns on camera►Any incidents of passing are recorded and

uploaded to data center using 4G cellular►Data center processes video and sends

clip to ACPD for confirmation

Examples of the Devices

Violations and Fees►Confirmed violations sent back to data

center►Vendor prepares summons and sends to

violator►Violator has option to pay $250 fee or come

to court (only 1% challenged nationally)►Program is violator funded, and residual

revenue reverts to locality ACPD costs for certifying violations ACPS receives remaining funds (school buses?)

Next Steps

►Redflex (same vendor used for intersection cameras) has offered to conduct a pilot study at no cost, with no obligation City of Charlottesville is already conducting one

►Local ordinance allowing photo enforcement will need to be passed by BOS per

§ 46.2-844