Cherokee County schools to try out bus scofflaw cameras

The Cherokee County School District will launch a pilot program this spring, mounting external cameras on school buses to record drivers breaking the law by passing buses with their “stop” arms extended.

District Superintendent Brian V. Hightower announced the pilot at Thursday’s school board meeting. He noted that on a single day, the district’s bus drivers counted 178 violations of the school bus stop-arm law. The Cherokee County schools operate a 400-bus fleet.

The pilot would be conducted at no cost to the district by BusPatrol America LLC, district spokeswoman Barbara Jacoby said in an email. Cameras would be installed on six buses on one set of routes for a month, and then on six different buses for a month. If the pilot is successful, the district could issue a request for proposals from vendors of school bus camera systems.

Alleged violators would not be issued citations during the pilot, Jacoby said. “Its purpose is to test out using a system and capture data about the number of violators,” she said.

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