Busted By The Bus: Parkway Rolls Out New Cameras To Keep Kids Safe
FOX2 reports on a new safety measure installed on some of the district's fleet of buses.
Children hop off the bus and head into Mason Ridge Elementary for their first day of school.
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The Parkway School district has a new tool in its toolbelt in efforts to improve school bus safety.
FOX2 reports 12 of the district's 148 buses are equipped with digital cameras on the exterior to see if cars are stopping when the bus stop sign arm goes up.
District officials told the station that last year, without the cameras, 55 vehicles drove through the stopping arm.
Michael Rhodes
2:42 pm on Thursday, September 20, 2012
Curious as to how local police departments will be able to issue tickets. With red light cameras cities (Ellisville for example) had to create an ordinance to cover tickets by a camera. Do these cities already have laws in place to address this?
Sensible? I think so
9:20 am on Saturday, December 8, 2012
I wonder if eyewitness testimony from the bus driver would make this different. From the Ellisville law (Sec. 315.170-A-3): "Recorded images derived from automated photo traffic enforcement systems shall constitute competent and sufficient evidence for citation and conviction".
flyoverland
4:07 pm on Thursday, September 20, 2012
This is another horrible idea.
Sensible? I think so
9:02 am on Thursday, December 6, 2012
Would you mind sharing why this is a horrible idea?
Bonnie Krueger
6:46 pm on Thursday, September 20, 2012
My children are on those buses--55 cars are 55 too many. I like the idea. Keep my kids safe and let there be legal consequences for the drivers who think they are above the law.
Mike K
9:38 am on Saturday, December 8, 2012
Just because you can fish, doesn't mean you can or should catch ALL of them.
The point of these traffic safety laws is not to achieve total and complete enforcement or 'no tolerance'. There will always be people who break the law. So the laws should be based on risk management, not a misguided fantasy of total compliance.
The world already had its 'total compliance' utopians if you remember that little war we were in back in the early 1940s. Did we not learn anything from History?
This is the slippery slope, folks.
Sensible? I think so
10:58 am on Saturday, December 8, 2012
This has nothing to do with "that little war we were in back in the early 1940s".
And it's not a slippery slope.
And your "no tolerance" comments don't apply. The video says "helping to catch"
and "added effort".
It has everything to do with safety enhanced by technology (and without additional cost to police, I think). $180 per bus is a bargain as far as I'm concerned. Though I'd rather not pay anything, that's the cost to us of "people who break the law".
Bonnie Krueger
9:48 am on Saturday, December 8, 2012
Mike, your comments are offensive to me as a mom with kids on those buses. NO TOLERANCE if my kids or anyone else's kids' safety is at risk. So according to your some but not all means that it's OK if some kids are hurt or even killed by a careless (no, stupid) driver who has no common sense or sense of the LAW? Do you have kids in Parkway? If you do, I feel sorry for your lack of concern for them.
Mike K
8:49 am on Sunday, December 9, 2012
Bonnie, my point is that this is a solution to a non-problem. These cameras will not reduce the offenders of that traffic law one bit. And I don't see how it increases the conviction rate beyond the testimony of the qualified, trained bus driver.
Cameras are not magical and somehow make anything 'safer' by their existence or use. You are the one putting your and my kids at risk if you think that these cameras will somehow 'protect' them instead of putting the limited resources we all have into other, more beneficial efforts with demonstrated measurable safety result, not conviction or revenue results.
In essence, you are using your kids as bait to generate revenue via fines. That to me as a parent is offensive and disgusting.
Sensible? I think so
10:57 am on Sunday, December 9, 2012
55 violation reports last year, I don't consider that a non-problem. Apparently, neither does Parkway.
The cameras will reduce repeat offenders who get tired of paying the fines.
Cameras will increase the conviction rate due to reduction in errors in reading license plates. Especially at this time of year with low light and weather.
And bus drivers should not be staring at license plates to begin with.
"using your kids as bait to generate revenue via fines": what a repugnant accusation. And an accusation that makes no sense at all, because Parkway doesn't get the revenue.
I'd like to see the revenue from this program be zero, and my uninformed guess is that the cities and St. Louis County would agree. At $180 per bus, it's an insignificant cost to Parkway with the potential for improving safety where there's a known problem, so a wise expenditure.
Bonnie Krueger
9:10 am on Sunday, December 9, 2012
You are right that the cameras do not keep the kids safe just by virtue they are there.But printed on the bus is the "STATE LAW STOP WHILE LOADING AND UNLOADING". Now they have safeguards that if someone violates that law, they have the camera evidence, including their license plate, so that a ticket can be issued. Unless you break the law, no ticket will be issued. I am not looking for revenue---I don't want to see a child hit because a driver thinks they are above the law. If it makes a person think twice about violating the law, then it is working.