WASHINGTON — A reminder before you hit the road, if you see a school bus with its stop arm down, make sure you also stop!
Driving by a stopped school bus is extremely dangerous and against the law. And in D.C., beginning Monday, you could be caught on camera.
The buses will capture a video clip of drivers illegally passing a school bus stopped with its sign down. The reason there’s a stop arm in the first place is to let drivers know students are getting either on or off. Now, there are 600 school buses in use, but 25 of them will have cameras installed.
D.C.’s Department of Transportation warns it will not be advertising which buses have the cameras, so drivers will be taking the risk of getting a ticket any time they pass a bus with its stop arm down.
“It is very challenging to enforce traffic safety laws when it comes to something like this, like the school bus stop arm, because it happens very quickly and we knew we needed a better vehicle to capture this, and to really change behaviors, the cameras are a great way to do it. If you’re doing it and it’s on one of the buses that has the camera, you will be caught," said Sharon Kershbaum, D.C. Department of Transportation Director.
What if someone else was driving your car that day? Kershbaum told WUSA9, it’s similar to other traffic cameras. It’s tied to the car license plate, so notices get sent to the vehicle’s car registration.
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