Assembly Committee OKs School Bus Arm Safety Camera Bills

TRENTON – An Upper Township high school student was seriously injured earlier this year due to illegal school bus passing. The 14-year-old girl “suffered serious injuries” while walking across the street to catch her bus to school.
The bus was parked with its stop sign extended and lights were flashing when a driver disobeyed the warning and flew through the stop sign, hitting the adolescent girl.
Such incidents take place frequently throughout the county, state, and nation.
Because of the student endangerment of those actions, Middle Township Board of Education joined other entities to support an Assembly bill that would use cameras on the extended arms of school buses to record vehicles that disregard the law and endanger school children boarding or departing the buses.
According to a release from the Traffic Safety Coalition, the Assembly Appropriations Committee passed S-211 and A-3798 by a vote of 7-0 with two abstentions June 1. 
These identical bills authorize school districts and local law enforcement to use proven, life-saving technology to keep school children safe while loading and unloading from stopped schools buses when traveling to and from school. S-211 had previously passed the State Senate 30-1 Jan. 23, 2017 and A-3798 was unanimously reported out by the Assembly Education Committee on May 18, 2017. 
The bills head to the full Assembly for approval.
The two bills would allow school districts and local municipalities to equip school bus arm safety cameras to the exterior of school buses to capture video of drivers illegally passing stopped buses as children are loading and unloading. 
Under the bills, local law enforcement will be able to use the video captured to issue citations to the drivers caught breaking the law.
Both S-211 and A-3798 have drawn praise and endorsement from New Jersey parents, teachers, bus drivers, principals, school boards, superintendents and medical professionals from around the state, including:
•   New Jersey School Boards Association
•   New Jersey Parent Teachers Association (PTA)
•   New Jersey Principals & Supervisors Association
•  Garden State Coalition of Schools
•  New Jersey Education Association
•  New Jersey Brain Injury Alliance
•  School Transportation Supervisors of New Jersey Association (STS)
•  Deptford Township Board of Education
•  Middle Township Board of Education
More than 70 school boards, mayors, school bus drivers, teachers and traffic safety advocates wrote to members of the Assembly Appropriations Committee earlier this week urging them to support the bills, noting:
“Illegal school bus passing is a real problem in New Jersey. Police officers issued more than 1,600 violation notices to drivers who failed to stop for a school bus last year. That number represents 1,600 times New Jersey school children were put in harm’s way, and the reality is that number is significantly higher because these violations represent only those reported by school bus drivers or seen by police officers.”
“The facts don’t lie: school bus cameras work and keep kids safe. Potentially life-threatening accidents can be avoided through school bus safety cameras,” stated Trevalina Jackson, vice president, Deptford Township Board of Education, who testified at the June 1 hearing. “The data points to the effectiveness of cameras as a means to change driver behavior and improve the safety of our school children.”