Passing the bus in Gwinnett to cost 1,521 drivers $300

Gwinnett is the latest school district to use cameras on buses to catch violators. January was the first month Gwinnett started issuing the citations after sending warnings in November and December.

Gwinnett school officials say they are pleased with the program after one month, despite the seemingly high number of citations. The goal, they say, is to encourage people to drive more safely when a school bus is around. They believe the message is getting through.

Buford residents Ed and Amy Reese believe the cameras are a deterrent, but they think additional measures are in order. They’ve lobbied Gwinnett officials for three years to install the cameras. Their son, Aaron, is a second-grader at Ivy Creek Elementary School, and they have been distressed by the many vehicles they’ve seen driving in both directions past their son’s school bus each morning and afternoon.

They say they saw four motorists drive past their son’s school bus the first day of the program. Amy Reese said they want Gwinnett to, among other things, take points off a motorist’s license.

“They just can’t rely on the cameras,” Amy Reese said. “There needs to be a police officer out there too.”

The fines, which can be as much as $1,000, aren’t enough because a fine can be reduced in court, the couple said.

Some places have had trouble making such citations stick.

Over a recent two-year stretch in Dallas, Texas, about five in seven cases that were appealed were dismissed, The Dallas Morning News reported. In Cobb County though, about 3 percent of cases were dismissed that were appealed, were reviewed or went before hearings over the past three years, officials said.