Protecting Children One Camera at a Time

As a father and former member of law enforcement who has personally seen the results of children being seriously injured or killed, it has always boggled my mind that some drivers believe those few seconds of their time waiting for a school bus is more important than a child's life.

Drivers heed our warning; come fall, the County of Rockland’s significant child safety initiative will be in effect across most of Rockland and cracking down on drivers putting children at risk.

With that, I am happy to announce that six school districts have officially opted into the Rockland County School Bus Safety program including Pearl River UFSD, Nanuet UFSD, North Rockland CSD, Clarkstown CSD, Suffern CSD, and Nyack UFSD.

BOCES is also working diligently with our New York State lawmakers to amend the law to allow BOCES to participate. (See links to legislation here and here) We are still waiting on South Orangetown and East Ramapo to opt-in.

Every day in New York State, an estimated 50,000 drivers illegally pass stopped school buses, putting the lives and safety of children at risk. To make roads safer for our children, the County of Rockland has partnered with company BusPatrol to launch a violator-funded business model allowing districts to equip school buses with cameras on the bus stop-arms at no-cost.

This is a completely free program that without a doubt will protect children from being killed and I am shocked we don’t have 100% participation from the schools yet. As a former PTA Health and Safety Chairperson and Life Award honoree I know the power of parents and am urging South Orangetown and East Ramapo parents to contact these Districts - the only two which have not signed up and demand they take immediate action.

So far 165 buses have been equipped across the Suffern, Nanuet, and Pearl River School Districts with 111 tickets issued in only six weeks. The County anticipates another 300 buses to be equipped by September in North Rockland and Clarkstown.

Drivers caught by those cameras illegally passing activated stop-arms on school buses will then be issued the following penalties by mail:

1st Violation $250

2nd Violation $275

3rd Violation $300

(within 18-month period)

For a look at some of our early violations discovered head to our Youtube Channel at Youtube.com/RocklandGov.