GUILDERLAND — In November 2022, Albany County launched a program with BusPatrol to discourage drivers from passing stopped school buses.

Despite outreach, the violations keep occurring — and are increasing.

Since September, nearly 6,000 tickets have been issued, said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy at a press conference on Monday.

“It’s sad, no matter how much we’re pushing back out that this still continues to rise, which is so scary,” said McCoy.

The program has brought in a little over $410,000 since September, he said.

“We don’t want your money,” said McCoy. “But we want to make sure your kids get to school safe, day in and day out.”

Six school districts — Berne-Knox-Westerlo, Bethlehem, Guilderland, North Colonie, South Colonie, and Voorheesville — have joined the program.

Schools that join the BusPatrol program have their buses equipped, for free, with cameras.

 Bus Patrol explains that stop-arm cameras identify illegal passers by their license-plate numbers. Tickets are issued to a vehicle’s registered owner unless the automobile is proven stolen during the time of the offense. If someone other than the vehicle’s owner was driving at the time, the owner can request a transfer of liability.

 The company provides a diagram, detailing an eight-step process, beginning with a camera attached to the outside of the bus being activated when a vehicle passes. The data is sent to servers and processed before being reviewed for violations; an evidence package is then sent to the municipality where the violation occurred. The municipality reviews the evidence and issues a citation. The driver then pays the fine online or by mail.

According to state law, traffic approaching from either direction must stop for a stopped school bus with its red lights flashing. The first-time penalty for illegally passing a school bus is a $250 to $400 fine, 5 points on the driver’s license, and/or possibly 30 days in jail, according to the state’s Operation Safe Stop, which adds, “Worse yet, the memory of hitting or killing a child may be one you carry for the rest of your life!”

Every school day, 2.3 million children ride school buses statewide and an estimated 50,000 motor vehicles illegally pass New York State school buses every day, according to Operation Safe Stop.

Sixty percent of the fine money goes to BusPatrol and 40 percent to Albany County. McCoy has said before that any funds the county collects from the program will be used to promote safety.

On Monday, he showed a video, taken on East Lydius Street in Guilderland, in which two kids waited to get picked up by a school bus with its lights on and its stop sign out as a motorist blew by — “just one second from a tragic accident happening,” said McCoy.

Ninety-five percent of drivers do not contest their ticket after seeing video evidence of their violation, according to BusPatrol.

McCoy said that joining the program was “not a popular thing to do,” and went on, “I’m OK with someone pissed off at me, screaming at me over a ticket.”

He believes that the pandemic has made people “less patient than they ever were before.”

McCoy praised school superintendents who signed onto the BusPatrol program as “visionaries,” school bus drivers as “working on the front lines,” and town and county leaders for their support — many of whom were standing behind him, wearing school-bus-yellow T-shirts.

The shirts show a school bus with its stop arm out and display this message in capital letters: All cars. All directions. Must stop. It’s the law.

A bevy of schoolchildren, wearing the same shirts, stood next to McCoy.

“Do you like the shirts?” he asked the kids.

“Yes,” they answered as one.

As McCoy urged, “Take your time going to work … pay attention,” he asked the kids, “It’s OK to be at work five minutes early, right kids?”

“Yes,” came the chorus again.

Andrew Van Alstyne, Guilderland’s assistant superintendent for business, wore the same yellow shirt and said he enjoyed riding on the bus with Westmere Elementary students.

He called the yellow buses — noting some electric ones may soon be added to Guilderland’s fleet — “an iconic symbol of our education system” and “a rite of passage for our students.”

Van Alstyne thanked the drivers, the aids, the monitors, the dispatchers, and the transportation leadership for their work.

At the end of the press conference, one of the kids asked, “Are we on the news?”

The reporters covering the event called out their stations in response.