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
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