Jones County school buses get cameras to stop illegal passing

There could be serious consequences for passing a school bus in Jones County from now on.

Wednesday, the school district announced a new program using Gatekeeper Systems’ stop arm cameras to crack down on drivers who pass when buses are stopped to drop off or pick up students.

“It’s not easy to drive a bus,” said Ginger Bailey, chairwoman of the Jones County school board. “Teaching is important, but ... getting the children to us safely is our first concern.”

The cameras have already been mounted on about 10 percent of the district’s 85 buses, but no violations were sent to the Jones County Sheriff’s Office or the City of Gray Police Department because the public hadn’t been made aware of the system. Still, the cameras have detected 18 violations in one week and as many as 12 in a day.

“People get on these country roads, and they’re just driving and go right by a school bus,” said Katie Sharkey, outside sales director for Gatekeeper Systems.

Sharkey said that some companies may not want to work with smaller school districts, but she has seen the need even in areas where the profit might not be as high for the company. In Jones County, the revenue from the tickets will be shared so that the district also gets a cut to be used for safety efforts the county’s schools.

The first offense for passing a bus equals a $300 fine, with the second offense bringing a $750 fine and the third resulting in a $1,000 fine.

“Unfortunately, the way to get people’s attention is to hit their pocketbook,” Sharkey said.

Those penalties have always been in place, but bus drivers are not usually able to get a tag number or other identifying features. Dale Bell, who has been driving buses for 34 years, said that her first priority in the “pretty regular” occasions when a car passes illegally is to make sure that students entering or exiting the bus are out of harm’s way.

“Lot of times, you tell the students on the bus to be ready ... and say, ‘Get that tag number,’” Bell said. “It’s not easy to get a tag number.”

Deputy Boise Hunt with the Jones County Sheriff’s Office said that, without that identifying information, catching offenders can be nearly impossible.

“You’ve got to have a witness,” Hunt said. “With that system, now you have all that evidence.”

Further, he said the video proof will help keep such incidents from going to court. People who might have fought such an accusation in the past will now be confronted with video proof that the offense took place.

“It helps a lot because it saves time,” Hunt said.

When a bus driver sees a car pass illegally, they’ll have a “panic button” in buses that have the camera system, according to transportation director Wendy Vaughn. That will put a marker on the video for that time period and signal the district office to pull that video. From there, the video of the violation will be sent to the appropriate law enforcement agency to determine whether the violation was legitimate or not.

“Like if a bus driver doesn’t give enough warning ... and the car doesn’t have enough time to react,” Vaughn said, also noting that there was a nine-day window where video would be available, even if the panic button wasn’t pushed.

At that point, the driver will be sent a notice of the offense with a photo of their license plate and a link to the related video. Vaughn said that the buses with the cameras will be rotated throughout the county to routes where violations frequently take place and that the district’s goal was to educate people about the serious nature of passing buses when children could be put in danger.

“We’re informing the communities; they are on all the major highways of Jones County,” Vaughn said.

This story was originally published April 27, 2016 at 1:18 PM with the headline "Jones County school buses get cameras to stop illegal passing."