To the Editor:

When I co-sponsored a local county law to fund video camera systems on school buses to prevent drivers from passing illegally when the bus stop sign arm was extended, I knew it would address a serious problem.

After all, the most dangerous part of the school bus ride is getting on and off the bus. This is especially true given the unpredictable behavior of young children.

School districts pay nothing for the equipment and monitoring. The majority of the money from fines goes to vendors who manage the process.

What is surprising, and disturbing, though is how many local drivers ignore the stop signs and pass by the buses. Doesn’t everyone recognize how reckless this is? Apparently not.

The South Colonie School District, the first to sign up for this program, reports 700 violations a month occur. The Guilderland School District, which just began the effort, reports 244 violations in the program’s first three weeks [“‘We’ve been dancing with the devil’ says McCoy of school safety violations,” The Altamont Enterprise, April 24, 2023].

Operation Safe Stop states statewide there are 50,000 illegal school bus passings every school day.

My question for drivers is this: What appointment or work check-in time do you have that is so important you would risk the life of a child, or a pedestrian, or your own life?

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports 60 passengers and 53 drivers were killed in school bus crashes between 2011 and 2020 involving a driver illegally passing a school bus.

This is a problem that can be fixed. There is no rational reason drivers should pass a stopped school bus given the enormous risk. No driver ever woke up in the morning expecting to kill a child that day.

Yet, that tragedy lurks among this dangerous activity. Also, keep in mind that multi-lane highways like Central and Western avenues require drivers to stop in both directions.

Mark Grimm
Guilderland

Editor’s note: Mark Grimm is an Albany County legislator representing part of Guilderland.