Thomas Breen photos
At First Student's Middletown Ave. lot.
First Student location manager Michael McDaniel: "Safety is our highest priority in our company."
The Elicker administration is looking to install cameras on school buses as part of a new automatic-enforcement system that would send out $250 tickets to the owners of cars that illegally pass stopped school buses.
Mayor Justin Elicker, New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) Supt. Madeline Negrón, city transportation director Sandeep Aysola, and First Student location manager Michael McDaniel announced that plan midday Monday during a press conference held at the First Student school bus lot at 140 Middletown Ave.
The proposal is detailed in an ordinance amendment that the Elicker administration has submitted to the Board of Alders for review. It’s listed as a “communication” on Monday night’s Board of Alders meeting agenda, and will next head to an aldermanic committee for a public hearing and discussion before returning to the full board for a potential vote.
If approved, the ordinance amendment would create a “School Bus Violation Detection, Monitoring, and Enforcement System” that would hinge upon cameras installed on each city school bus.
The cameras would take pictures of the license plates of cars that illegally drive past school buses that are displaying flashing red signal lights, which indicate that the bus is stopped for picking up or dropping off students.
The city would then send the owner of that car a $250 ticket. The car owner would have 30 days to appeal the ticket.
Click here to read the proposal in full.
The city hopes to have this new auto-enforcement system up and running by the start of next school year, Elicker said. Should the alders approve the proposal, the city would next put out a Request for Proposals (RFP) for companies looking to install the cameras and activate the system.
“Funds received by the City from such fines shall be used for the purposes of improving public safety in the City,” the proposed ordinance amendment reads, “including but not limited to compensating any private vendor that installs, operates or maintains the City’s Monitoring System.”
Elicker said that 330 First Student buses take more than 17,000 New Haven Public Schools students to and from school every school day.
Elicker also said that Bridgeport already has this type of school bus camera system in place. In the first six months of operation of that city’s program, he said, Bridgeport saw “around 10,000 people” violating the law by illegally driving past stopped school buses. He said that 90 percent of the people who received fines did not re-offend.
He also noted that being caught by a police officer is “a lot more expensive”: that carries a fine of $475, and points on one’s license. “Police officers can’t be everywhere in the city,” the mayor noted. Thus this new auto-enforcement plan for $250 tickets.
“We’re excited about this,” McDaniel said. “Safety is our highest priority in our company.” Hopefully these cameras will reduce the number of cars that illegally pass stopped school buses. “It’s a frustrating thing for our drivers to go through.”
Richard Johnson, a First Student school bus driver, also noted at Monday’s press conference that “a lot of drivers try to beat buses.” That “leaves our kids in a dangerous situation.”
This proposal comes as the city is also working to install 19 speed and red-light cameras across the city as part of a different automatic-enforcement traffic safety program. That program, when it’s up and running, will send a ticket worth $50 to $75 to the owner of a vehicle caught on camera speeding or running a red light.
The state Department of Transportation’s (DOT) website indicates that red-light and speed camera programs have been approved for the Connecticut municipalities of Marlborough and Washington. That same website indicates that municipal plans for Greenwich, Middletown, New Haven, Stamford, Stratford, and Wethersfield are still under review.