New AI Tech Found 174 Montgomery Twp. School Bus Violations In March

MONTGOMERY TOWNSHIP, PA — Montgomery Township issued a whopping 174 citations to drivers who illegally passed school buses in the North Penn School District during March, according to a review of the latest data from local police.

The citations came from the new technology from BusPatrol, which puts cameras on buses and school bus arms to record license plate information of vehicles that do not stop for buses with the stop arm out.

See related: North Penn To Use New Technology To Catch Bus Violators

A total of 220 "possible" violations were detected by the technology in March, indicating a nearly 80 percent accuracy rate in detecting citation-worthy offenses.

"We are committed to the safety of the students and want to remind everyone to obey the flashing lights and stop signs on school buses," Montgomery Township police shared in a statement.

BusPatrol is new in the North Penn School District for the 2024-25 school year.

“In other communities, the use of this technology has reduced instances of motorists recklessly disregarding school bus stop signs by over 40 percent,” Justin Meyers, president at BusPatrol, said in August. “This significant reduction demonstrates how our program effectively changes behavior and contributes to safer roadways.

School buses are illegally passed an estimated 43.5 million times nationwide, the district said, with more than 200 incidents reported in a single school day in Pennsylvania in 2023.

The penalty for a first time violation is $300.

Pennsylvania’s School Bus Stopping Law requires the following from all drivers:

• Motorists must stop at least 10 feet away from school buses that have their red lights flashing and stop arm extended
• Motorists must stop when they are behind a bus, meeting the bus or approaching an intersection where a bus is stopped
• Motorists following or traveling alongside a school bus must also stop until the red lights have stopped flashing, the stop arm is withdrawn, and all children have reached safety
• If physical barriers such as grassy medians, guide rails or concrete median barriers separate oncoming traffic from the bus, motorists in the opposing lanes may proceed without stopping
• Do not proceed until all the children have reached a place of safety