Yonkers puts cameras on school buses to catch scofflaws. Here are the early results

Staff reports

Rockland/Westchester Journal News

Yonkers has joined school systems and municipalities across New York that are outfitting school buses with cameras to catch vehicles that break the law by passing buses when kids are getting on or off.

Starting Thursday, more than 250 school buses in Yonkers have stop-arm cameras to catch vehicles passing a bus when its stop-arm is extended and lighting are flashing. For the first 30 days, drivers who are captured on film breaking the law will receive warnings. Beginning Nov. 13, registered owners of such vehicles will receive a ticket in the mail.

Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano said late Thursday morning that 136 unconfirmed violations had already been caught on camera in only a few hours of operation.

Exterior cameras will be mounted on School Buses used in the City of Yonkers, to transport children to and from schools, pictured Oct.12, 2023. The cameras will operate when the school bus stop-arm is extended and lights are flashing, to record violators passing the bus.

Spano said he hopes to have all 500-600 buses that serve Yonkers schoolchildren outfitted with cameras by next fall.

"We want to make sure that people know that if they pass that stop sign, if they pass a bus while the lights are flashing, they are putting our students in danger," Spano said at a press conference Thursday.

Fines will be: $250 for a first offense, $275 for a second offense within 18 months; and $300 for a subsequent offense in 18 months. Late penalties may accrue if payment is not received.

"There is no discretion," Yonkers Police Commissioner Christopher Sapienza said. "If you illegally pass a school bus, you will get a ticket. Period."

Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano delivers remarks as he talks about the new cameras installed on the exterior of a School Bus used in the City of Yonkers, to transport children to and from schools, pictured Oct.12, 2023. The cameras will operate when the school bus stop-arm is extended and lights are flashing, to record violators passing the bus. The demonstration was held at School 23 on van Cortlandt Park Avenue.

Sapienza said some drivers will be incredulous when they get an automated summons, but can see on video what they did.

About 12,000 Yonkers students are transported in school buses each day, according to the city.

A 2019 state law allows counties to outfit school buses with video cameras in local school districts that choose to participate. Cities decide on their own whether to participate. Counties and cities generally contract with private companies to outfit their buses with cameras and send violation information to local police, in exchange for a cut of the revenue.

More:More school buses outfitted with cameras. How drivers get caught passing such vehicles

Several counties in the Lower Hudson Valley, including Rockland and Putnam, have chosen to partner with BusPatrol, a Virginia-based company that says it has outfitted over 10,000 buses with video cameras across New York and operates in at least 11 other states.

But Yonkers chose to partner with Verra Mobility, a transportation technology company.

Westchester County passed legislation to start a school bus camera program earlier this year and issued a request for proposals. The county has received three proposals, will interview vendors this month and anticipates a recommendation by the end of November.

A camera is located on the top exterior of a School Bus used in the City of Yonkers, to transport children to and from schools, pictured Oct.12, 2023. The cameras will operate when the school bus stop-arm is extended and lights are flashing, to record violators passing the bus.

Two Westchester districts that participated in a pilot program with video cameras, Somers and Hendrick Hudson, said they videoed nearly 650 illegal passings of school buses between them in September and October of 2022.

According to the state Association for Pupil Transportation, about 50,000 motorists illegally pass stopped school buses daily in New York. A 2018 study of 113 school bus fatalities that had occurred across the state since 1960 found 82 fatalities, or 81.4%, involved students outside their buses.