Hillsborough County Public Schools and Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Announce Florida's Newest and Largest Student Transportation Safety Program
08 Agosto 2024 - 10:51AM
BusPatrol, the leading stop-arm enforcement solution in the nation,
today announced it is expanding its school bus safety program
through a new partnership with Hillsborough County Public Schools.
As students across Florida prepare to return to the classroom,
school districts are ramping up efforts to enhance child safety.
The Hillsborough County School Bus Safety Program will see the
district's entire fleet of over 1,000 buses equipped with
the most cutting-edge stop-arm cameras in the country, making
it the largest safety initiative of its kind in the state. The
cameras use artificial intelligence to detect cars that illegally
pass stopped school buses, aiding law enforcement in tackling the
rise of reckless and illegal motorist behavior around school
buses.
“Recent studies show Florida drivers illegally pass stopped
school buses more than three times per bus per day. This is
unacceptable for our students,” said Hillsborough County Public
Schools Superintendent Van Ayres. “This initiative is more about
curbing the behavior of drivers than it is about ticketing. We have
to make our bus routes safer for our children.”
The latest partnership builds on the success of the program in
Miami-Dade County. In May, Miami-Dade County Public Schools
launched the first and largest school bus safety initiative in
Florida’s history, deploying BusPatrol's technology across the
district's 1,000-bus fleet. During its first month, the program
sent out over 10,000 warning letters to drivers who violated the
school bus stopping law.
Over 2,000 buses statewide have been modernized with
cutting-edge safety technology.
“Florida school buses are illegally passed up to 11,000 times
each day,” noted Justin Meyers, President and Chief Innovation
Officer at BusPatrol. “We applaud Hillsborough County Public
Schools and Miami-Dade County Public Schools for their
proactive efforts to protect students on their journeys to and from
school. We’re excited to collaborate with communities across
Florida to drive down illegal passing and make roads safer for
children.”
Hillsborough County School District will kick off a public
awareness campaign and warning period starting August 12, during
which motorists will receive warning letters with no monetary
penalty. After 30 days, drivers who fail to stop for a bus
with its red lights flashing will face a $225 fine, in accordance
with Florida State law.
The introduction of these safety programs follows the enactment
of SB 766 in 2023 and SB 994 in 2024. This legislation allows
school districts to install detection systems on school buses to
capture video and photographic evidence of vehicles violating the
stop-arm law.
To learn more about BusPatrol’s leading stop-arm enforcement
program, visit https://buspatrol.com/.
Kate Spree
BusPatrol
kate.spree@buspatrol.com