The Cornwall Central School District Board of Education voted 6-3 on October 5 to join the rest of Orange County’s school districts in allowing stop-arm cameras to be installed on the school buses used in the district. The cameras do not cost the district anything.

The program, operated and endorsed by Orange County and run by Bus Patrol, a Virginia-based company, uses cameras embedded in the STOP arm that extends from buses to automatically record video and license plate data of any vehicle passing it when that arm is out and red lights are flashing. The footage is reviewed by authorized personnel before a citation is mailed to the vehicle owner – that footage can be seen by the car owner once the citation is sent to them.

The fine is $250.

The matter came before the board a year ago as well – it was voted down at that point. A board member at the time, Christian Brunelli, spoke at length about what he sees as the flaws of the program, and this year, while no longer on the board, made similar comments during the public comment portion of the board meeting.

“There is no evidence of increased public safety,” Brunelli said. “Decades and decades of research says it doesn’t work.”

During discussion, several board members expressed their concerns about the program. Jamie Fox had several issues – the first being: “it’s a little weird we’re giving a private company the ability to arm our buses with cameras; it makes me nervous when talking about students, cameras and private companies”.

Her second point was that she said she has spoken to people who said they have received the tickets “but would never go past a stopped bus”. Or, she said, they continued on their path because they arm came out and they thought they would be “backended” if they stopped. A third concern, she said, was that “it feels like we’re taxing the people of Cornwall” with the program.

Fox suggested sending out a reminder via the school communication channels – no board member disagreed that wasn’t a good idea. She concluded her first comments by saying “You’re scaring the people – training them to be paranoid around buses”. A few minutes later she added “This just feels like a gotcha.”
Later, Board President Christine Diaz said she does want people to be a little more paranoid around buses. “I think I t is a deterrent, and yes, $250 is a lot,” she said. “But I don’t want to be sitting on the side of the table that could have made a difference (if something were to happen),” she added.

Board member Margaret Quinn, who noted her family has many first responders in it, called voting yes “a no brainer”, and added that she also sees it as a deterrent. She also added that Orange County receives a portion of the funds collected from each ticket, and is doing “good things” with those funds in the county’s school districts.

Quinn, and other board members, recounted knowledge of personal situations where tickets were issued for passing stopped school buses. Board member Lofton Riser said that she had received one, noting she had just turned a corner, and the arm was not fully out yet in her case. She, too, noted she continued on her path, not wanting to get rear-ended. “I don’t want to do that to the other people of Cornwall,” she said. She also expressed concerns about the “fine detail” in the contract, the fact that none of the fines collected came back to the school district directly, and said she also loves the idea of sending out some sort of refresher on bus safety. She also said the district needs to continually keep an eye on bus stops that are reported as problematic.

It was Fox, Riser and Kate Carey who voted no. Others also supported the idea, with Board Vice President Jim Creagan noting he voted no last year, but in watching videos provided by the company was swayed. He also said the company has reported giving out fewer tickets in the second year of the program indicates to him it may be working.

Board Member Brendan Carty also said he’d received such a ticket, saying he wasn’t first in line, but the driver hadn’t pulled the arm back in, so understands the frustration with the program. He added: “But, if it saves one child ….”
More about the program can be learned atorangecountyny.gov/2478/School-Bus-Safety-Program-in-Orange-Coun.