Tickets for passing school buses to be issued come November

First published Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 in the Dundalk Eagle.

A month ago, 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 signs.

On the first day of school in late August, Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough said the county would issue warnings for “at least” a month before issuing fees. One month later, the county is still issuing warnings with no fees — McCullough called it a “public awareness period.”

That will end in November, a school system spokesperson told the Eagle. Come “sometime this month,” the spokesperson said, the school system anticipates 80% of its school buses will have cameras installed. Once they are installed, it will launch a “final warning period” of 30 days.

After those 30 days, the county will start issuing $250 fines, sent in the mail within 10 days.

“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.”

In that one month, County Executive Johnny Olszewski said at a press conference Sept. 25, the county has mailed over 3,400 warnings — an average of more than 110 per day. The Baltimore County Police Department confirmed that number.

The $250 fine is set by state law. 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.

But if a police officer catches a driver passing a stopped school bus, drivers might pay more than twice that amount — up to $570 — and receive three points against their drivers license.

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, police chief McCullough said at the August press conference.

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.

A little more than half of Baltimore County’s school buses have the cameras installed now, a school system spokesperson told the Eagle. The remaining buses will get the cameras “over the next several weeks.”

“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.”