Rochester City Council Agrees To Install Stop-Arm Cameras

The Rochester City Council voted unanimously to enter an agreement with BusPatrol, a provider of school bus safety camera services, to keep Rochester’s kids safe. The vote came during National School Bus Safety Week. For the first time, the Rochester City School District will have technology that will take a snapshot of cars that pass by stopped school buses. According to the state, an estimated 50,000 vehicles illegally pass school buses in New York every day. “We don’t have hundreds of officers — the man power in law enforcement to station physical officers behind hundreds of school buses. So this is a place where photo enforcement makes a lot of sense,” said Steve Randazzo, chief growth officer with BusPatrol. BusPatrol is installed in over 11,000 school buses across New York State. Randazzo says the program’s goal is to get students on and off the bus safely — and to hold reckless drivers accountable. With this new technology provided by BusPatrol, buses will be able to catch drivers in the act when they pass a school bus while the stop arm is out. New York legalized the use of stop arm cameras back in 2019. Now, the City of Rochester has established a local law to use them to charge penalties.The fines for being caught illegally passing a school bus are:

• $250 for the first violation
• $275 for a second violation
• $300 for a third and subsequent violation
• An additional $25 fee if you don’t respond to the fine

Source: WHEC-TV