Austin ISD Using Mounted Cameras to Catch Bus Passing Violations

Beginning this week, those who illegally pass a stopped school bus will find themselves on camera and ticketed.

The Austin Independent School District installed mounted cameras on the sides of their school buses last month to monitor drivers who ignore the stop sign when a bus is loading and offloading students.  According to Austin ISD Police Chief Eric Mendez, in the month since the cameras were installed they've discovered over 330 violations,

Some of these are just blatant passes of the bus.  It's only a matter of time before a student is struck and we don't want that to happen.

Currently, only 100 buses are outfitted with the cameras, with plans to install them on all 300 buses in the district by the end of next month.  The cameras will not only capture the license plate of those who pass a stopped bus, but also note the location on GPS.  Chief Mendez has noted that they are stationing officers in the locations with the highest occurrences so violators can be dealt with immediately rather than waiting for a $300 ticket in the mail.

The district was able to arrange the install and maintanence of the cameras at not cost through a revenue sharing with American Traffic Systems.  The district has also hired an administrative appeals judge to handle any disputed tickets.

via KVUE