Through the contract, BusPatrol agreed to install camera systems on all of the buses used for the district.

The installation is complete and those cameras have been capturing violations of the school bus passing law.

“BusPatrol has installed cameras on all our school buses, and they are active while the bus is running,” Transportation Manager Mike Kiehl said.

“The cameras use artificial intelligence, coupled with motion sensors, to detect when a vehicle passes the school bus while the stop arm and flashing red lights are activated,” Kiehl said. “If a camera is triggered by an event, it will automatically send the recording to a BusPatrol employee for preliminary verification, who will then forward it to law enforcement for processing.”

Times Observer file photo Evan Buege installs a BusPatrol GPS and AI unit on the top of a Warren Bus Lines bus. Since their installation, the cameras have been capturing on average two stop-arm violations per day in Warren County.

A ticket is generated and the owner of the vehicle is fined.

A de facto grace period is ending soon. “While all Warren County School District bus cameras are operating and identifying violations, BusPatrol is still working with PennDOT on access to the records necessary to continue processing those violations,” Kiehl said. “As a result, most violations are not yet resulting in an actual citation.”

Cameras on a bus at the site of a crash involving a vehicle that illegally based a bus with arm and lights activated and seriously injured a child caught the incident. The video was provided to law enforcement.

That is far from the only violation.

“Since installation, the BusPatrol cameras are capturing on average two stop-arm violations per day in Warren County,” Kiehl said. “An average of two violations per day is simply too many, and I would like to stress to our motorists how dangerous these violations can be to the health and safety of the children that we transport.”

“We will continue to provide the community with articles and communication about the importance of stopping for school buses when the reds are deployed,” he said. “If you are in doubt if you should stop for a school bus, we would always encourage you to land on the side of safely stopping to protect our students around buses. We installed these cameras as another layer to help our student’s transportation be as safe as possible.”