$250 tickets for passing school bus starting Nov. 4

First published Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024 in the Dundalk Eagle.

Starting Nov. 4, drivers who pass a stopped Baltimore County school bus with its stop sign out will pay $250, the Baltimore County Police Department announced in a Facebook post.

Baltimore County Public Schools started adding cameras to its roughly 1,000 school buses to catch drivers who failed to stop when the buses extended their stop sign in September. Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough announced the program on the first day of school in late August.

First, McCullough said, the county would institute a “public awareness period” in which drivers would receive warnings instead of citations in the mail. He said it would last for “at least” a month.

It ended up lasting two months. A Baltimore County Public Schools spokesperson told the Eagle in September that the county would launch a “final warning period” once 80% of its school buses have the cameras that capture drivers who break the law.

“Each year, we hear horrifying stories of cars that pass by buses at alarmingly high rates of speed,” Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Myriam Rogers said at the press conference on Aug. 26. “This is totally unacceptable, and I implore all drivers to slow down.”

The county mailed over 3,400 warnings — an average of more than 110 per day — in just one month after the program’s creation, County Executive Johnny Olszewski said at a press conference on Sept. 25.

The $250 fine will come in the mail within 10 days.

State law dictates the fee. Drivers must stop at least 20 feet away from the school bus no matter what direction they’re coming from, unless there’s a median. If there’s a median, only cars traveling in the same direction as the bus must stop.

The citations are issued in two steps: First, cameras snap a picture of drivers who do not stop. Second, staff from camera manufacturer AngelTrax verify the citations and a Baltimore County police officer reviews them, McCullough said.

The program “most likely” won’t cost taxpayers any money, transportation operations manager Kenny West said in a brief interview after the August press conference, because the fines will pay for the cameras.

Any left over money goes into the county’s coffers, designated for the school system, Chief Operating Officer Jess Grim said. A portion is reserved for making walking safer in the county.

Until the camera installation, Baltimore County relied solely on police officers to enforce the law. A police officer’s citation costs drivers up to $570 and three points against their drivers license.

“This has always been law, but we now have an ability to enforce it through this program,” Olszewski said. “So please be mindful of that.”