Gwinnett County drivers may be learning the hard way not to blow past school buses with their “stop” signs out.

The county’s Recorder’s Court – which handles traffic citations – expects the number of citations for illegally passing a stopped school bus to fall this year and again next year.

“We’re really hoping folks figure it out,” Judge Patricia Muise said Monday during a presentation on the court’s proposed 2017 budget. “What we see out there is very scary for the students.”

Last year Gwinnett County schools added bus cameras that photograph drivers who pass stopped buses. In 2015 that yielded 22,022 citations that generated about $4.2 million in revenue for the school district, the county and the company that operates the cameras. A first violation can cost $300.

Muise said the number of citations is falling. The court expects school bus cameras to generate 17,181 citations this year and 16,322 in 2017.

Muise said those are projections, and it’s difficult to say for sure how many citations will be issued.

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Austin Walters died from an overdose in 2021 after taking a Xanax pill laced with fentanyl, his father said. A new law named after Austin and aimed at preventing deaths from fentanyl has resulted in its first convictions in Georgia, prosecutors said. (Family photo)

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