Cobb school bus cameras catch 1,600 drivers endangering students
Just as the Cobb County student gets to the end of the driveway, he sees it coming.
A white Toyota zips through the neighborhood street.
The kid darts across the road to the safety of his flashing school bus waiting for him.
The car rolls by. It never stops.
That scene and others are captured on school bus cameras throughout Cobb County and reviewed to see if a law was broken. Some cases are fine. Others end in a $300 ticket.
During the first four weeks of school in Cobb, the police department issued a record 1,600 citations.
Traffic in both directions must stop when a school bus is stopped with flashing signals and loading or unloading students. Don't stop, and you likely to receive a ticket.
Cobb police statistics show 2,241 people violated the law in August. That number was 1,712 last year and 1,822 the year before that.
Why the increase?
"It's a lot of things. (Mostly) it's confusion," said Sgt. J. Largent with Cobb police.
» Why you should never drive past a stopped school bus in Georgia
Some footage shows drivers just flat-out don't know the law.
One video shows a maroon Ford pick-up fly past a school bus. Two seconds later, a blonde girl in a pink shirt wearing a backpack sheepishly appears from the side of the frame and walks across the street.
"If that little girl hadn’t been paying attention, she darts on in front of the bus. It’s crazy," Largent said.
When that happens, the camera on the school bus records the car, including the license plate. That footage is sent via Bluetooth to a server in Arizona run by American Traffic Solutions. A Cobb police officer reviews the footage, and if there's been a violation, ATS will send out the $300 citation.
» Interactive quiz: Find out how well you know the traffic rules about school bus safety
It could be worse: The fine increases to $600 if an officer sees the violation themselves.
That money gets split between the school system, the school board, the court system and the police general fund, Largent said.
The Cobb school board approved the use of school bus cameras in 2012. Now, about 25 percent of Cobb school buses have the cameras.
But four years later, drivers still don't understand the law, he said.
» Read the excuses motorists gave to a judge after being caught by school bus cameras
To educate drivers, Cobb schools and police plan to release a public service announcement and more literature about when to stop for school buses.
Largent hopes getting the word out will help drivers follow the rules of the road.
"People don’t intentionally try to run over children," he said.
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Here's how to avoid a $300 fine:
- All traffic in both directions must stop when a school bus stops with flashing signals, according to Georgia law.
- Motorists heading in both directions must stop for school buses that are loading and unloading (lights flashing and stop arm extended), unless the road is divided by a median.
- If there is a median, vehicles traveling in the opposite direction of the bus aren’t required to stop.
About the Author
Ben Brasch is the reporter tasked with keeping Fulton County government accountable. The Florida native moved to Atlanta for a job with The AJC. If there's something important to you going on in Fulton, he wants to know about it. Help him better metro Atlanta by dropping a line, anonymously or otherwise.
