If you're driving around Gwinnett County on Monday -- the first day of school -- expect to see police officers out in force.
Motorcycle officers of the Gwinnett County Police Department will follow school buses on their normal routes during the first few weeks of school, according to police spokesman Cpl. Jake Smith.
It's an effort to enforce laws pertaining to traffic around school buses, Smith said. "In particular, officers will be addressing the passing of school buses which are stopped to load and unload students," he said.
Smith notes that unlawful passing of a school bus gets a driver six points against their driver’s license.
"This is the same amount as aggressive driving and speeding by 34 mph or more. A person’s license will be suspended if they accumulate 15 or more points in a 24 month period," he said.
Some systems have resorted to using digital video cameras to help ensure school bus safety.
This year, Cobb County has equipped 102 school buses with the cameras that can capture the tag information of drivers who ignore the law that requires them to halt near a stopped bus when it is loading or unloading children.
"If you're in Cobb County, don't pass a bus because it could be equipped with a camera," said Michael Warner, associate director of fleet maintenance for Cobb schools.
The county outfitted the buses after Georgia law was amended this year to allow the use of video recordings in lieu of written statements by bus drivers.
Previously, violators could only be fined if police caught them or if bus drivers wrote down a tag number, vehicle description and time and place of the incident. Now, motorists can be fined based solely on the recordings.
Fines start at $300 for a first offense and rise to $1,000 for a third offense in five years.
Officials with Fayette County schools say they also use such cameras, and Fulton County school officials say they are considering them.
-- Staff writer Ty Tagami contributed to this article.
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