TRI In The News
School Bus Cameras to Crack Down on Drivers
From CBS19
Original article available here
Cameras at intersections, like the one at the intersection of Rio Road and Route 29, have successfully reduced the number of drivers ignoring red lights. Now the Charlottesville Pupil Transportation Department is looking at ways to keep students safe on the roads using a similar device.
"It is the state law that you stop when a school bus light and stop sign and stop arm are out so that the children can cross safely," said Sherri Eubanks, a supervisor with the Pupil Transportation Department.
In a few weeks, Charlottesville City Public School bus drivers will be able to pay even better attention to students loading and unloading. That's because some of their buses are getting cameras attached to their stop signs that will capture clear images of people who ignore the rules of the road.
"We have buses that stop at like Willow and Hazel and, you know, people are in such a hurry, you know, they just blow through the lights," Eubanks said. "Rose Hill Drive is another one. It's such a wide street, so people think, oh it's okay if I just go passed it and, you know, there are kids on the ground."
As it works now, when a driver does not stop, bus drivers have to catch license plate information themselves.
"You're in a panic, you know, because here's this car going across your stop sign, you know, and these kids are crossing in front of the bus," Eubanks said.
With the cameras, bus drivers can keep their eyes on the kids.
"It's a win-win situation for us," Eubanks said. "The drivers will be able to focus more on the children loading and unloading to make sure that they're safe, and then, in turn, these people can be prosecuted for what they're doing wrong."
28 states have already added cameras to school bus stop signs. Studies have found that tens of thousands of drivers blow by those stop signs every day as students are getting on and off the bus.
"This is going to happen," Eubanks said. "They are going to be captured. They're not going to be able to get passed it. We want children to be safe."
But officials at the Rutherford Institute in Charlottesville are worried about privacy. Institute President John Whitehead said that's because the camera on the bus will act as a surveillance camera, catching everything going on around it, even if it's not related to drivers breaking the law when they pass by stopped school buses.
"For example if I'm in my front yard arguing with my wife and the bus goes by and stops, it probably will catch my wife and I talking," Whitehead said, "and with the facial recognition software that's going to be on most surveillance cameras now, I mean I'll be permanently implanted on some police file."
There's still some confusion as to when the new systems will be installed. Transportation officials say the cameras will be delivered in two to three weeks, but the Charlottesville Police Department says they just learned about the program on Wednesday.
