A “surprisingly high” amount of drivers in DeKalb County continue to violate the school bus passing law, the sheriff’s office announced Friday.
Deputies issued 231 tickets for “arm stop violations” since school began on Aug. 1, putting the 2016 total at 350 tickets. The statistics were also shared with DeKalb bus drivers.
Sheriff Jeff Mann and DeKalb County schools Superintendent R. Stephen Green both see the violations as a serious danger to children.
“It is disappointing.” Mann said in the news release. “Since we began ticketing offenders in 2014, there has been a heightened awareness of the school bus passing law.”
Other agencies are also cracking down.
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Yet the violations persist.
Unlike in some metro Atlanta counties, DeKalb school buses haven't started to use cameras to catch violators who don't stop for buses' stop signs.
Still, Green said the violations are taken seriously.
“Violating school bus passing laws endangers the lives of our children,” he said in the release, “so we support the sheriff’s assistance with holding offenders accountable for irresponsible actions.”
The law requires vehicles approaching a stopped school bus to also stop until it’s safe to proceed. In DeKalb, the buses have retractable stop signs on the driver’s side to alert others of the stop.
Fines for passing a stopped bus can reach hundreds of dollars and add violation points to drivers’ licenses.
You can find information about DeKalb County schools, such as test scores, graduation rates, and school climate ratings at the Ultimate Atlanta School Guide.
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