Wyoming News Exchange
Video can now be used for school bus stop arm violations
By Isabella Alves
Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Via Wyoming News Exchange
CHEYENNE - Wyoming drivers are now caught on video every time they ignore a school bus stop arm, and these videos can be used to issue tickets to unlawful drivers.
The Wyoming Legislature passed a law this year that allows law enforcement to use the video school buses capture of vehicles disobeying their stop arms to write citations. The law became effective July 1.
School buses typically have a camera on them that is activated along with its stop arm. The video it captures can now be used by law enforcement to issue tickets.
Before, an officer had to witness the event themselves or try to follow up with a license plate number given to them by a bus driver.
Since school started Aug. 26, local law enforcement started receiving videos from Laramie County School District 1 transportation officials for stop arm violations.
The Cheyenne Police Department issued about 30 tickets for stop arm violations in September, while the Laramie County Sheriff's Department issued four. For CPD, this is an increase in stop arms citations, though exact numbers weren't available Wednesday, CPD spokesman Officer Kevin Malatesta said.
"What this law enables us to do is go after more violators and try to hold people accountable for passing those school buses," Malatesta said.
If identified in the video or stopped by an officer, the driver can receive a fine of up to $435. If the driver was unable to be identified in the video, a $195 citation is issued to the registered owner of the vehicle, and it doesn't count as a moving violation on the owner's record, according to state statute.
The registered owner can contest the ticket if they didn't give the driver who violated the stop arm permission to use their vehicle, or if the car's ownership transferred to a new owner prior to the violation, according to state law.
"I think it's a wonderful thing now that we have the follow-through on the back end. That legislation has put these fines and statutes in place to be able to protect the kids, and be able to enforce these violations, and hopefully bring the awareness to the people to the forefront that it's a school bus," said Drew Segal, transportation supervisor at Laramie County School District 1. "There are children around."
Bus drivers were already in the habit of calling in to the bus dispatcher every time a vehicle violated their stop arm. Now, when a bus driver reports this, Segal pulls the video from the bus and forwards it to law enforcement.
With the video now able to be used, Segal said it does more for the enforcement of violation, even though it takes a lot of time to pull the videos from the bus, go through them and then forward them to officers.
It also takes a lot of time to review the videos on the law enforcement side, as well, but it does create shorter and smoother investigations, sheriff's Lt. Mark Slovik said.
Before the law change, patrol officers would sit at certain areas, such as South Greeley Highway, where they knew a lot of violations took place. They would write tickets, go away and then have to come back to handle more violations, Slovik said.
With the videos, there is less gray area in the investigation.
"If we see it happen, absolutely we go after it," Malatesta said. "We don't have enough officers to be able to sit in front of every school and bus stop in the city."
The only times cars are allowed to pass a school bus with a deployed stop arm is if they are driving on a divided highway and the school bus is on the other side of the physical barrier, if the school bus is in a loading zone with a physical barrier between it and the passing vehicle, or if the driver is on a separate roadway than the bus, according to state statute.
For example, on Interstate 80, since there is a physical barrier between lanes traveling in the opposite direction and a school bus deploying its stop arm, cars traveling on the other side of the barrier aren't required to stop.
A grassy median also counts as a physical barrier, and a school bus stopped on the other side of the grassy median would be classified as a different roadway.
Also, if a school bus is loading children in a loading zone by a school, and there is a sidewalk, grassy area or other barrier separating it from the road, drivers aren't required to stop.
Another example where a driver would be required to stop, is on South Greeley Highway. Even though there are multiple traveling lanes going in different directions, they are only separated by a turn lane, Slovik said. This doesn't constitute as a physical barrier, and all vehicles must stop when a stop arm is used.
"They just need to understand the law," Segal said. "If it's an undivided roadway, and there is no physical barrier between them and the school bus, they must stop."