NJ proposal to have these violations recorded and mailed to drivers

⚫ Legislators have approved a measure involving school bus monitoring systems

⚫ The effort targets drivers who pass a stopped school bus

⚫ Critics suggest the idea gives 'red light camera' vibes

If flashing red lights and a stop-sign arm don't prevent you from driving past a school bus, maybe the threat of your actions being recorded and sent to police would do the trick.

A New Jersey Assembly committee has advanced a proposed law that authorizes the use of "bus monitoring systems" that can capture images and videos of the vehicles driving nearby.

Critics of the measure suggest the proposal won't improve safety, but instead just result in unnecessary summonses.

The aim of the bill is to crack down on motorists who illegally pass school buses that are stopped, trying to pick up or drop off kids.

"This bill is very important to the safety of our children," Assemblyman Sterley Stanley, D-Middlesex, said on Thursday during an Assembly Education Committee hearing.

Under Stanley's measure, footage of a violation can be forwarded to local law enforcement, who would then have 90 days to issue a summons to the driver.

Don't pass a flashing bus

The footage captured by the monitoring system must also show that the bus had its red lights flashing — when this action is taken, the first vehicle behind the bus and the first vehicle approaching the bus from the opposite lane are required to stay 25 feet back.

When there's a median, drivers on the opposite side of the divided highway just need to slow down to 10 mph while their vehicle is in line with the stopped bus.

A penalty of $250 would be imposed on the violating driver for a first offense, under the bill. Under existing law, the fine for an initial violation is a minimum of $100.

Fines issued through the monitoring system would not result in points on a driver's license, the bill says.

The measure has the support of groups such as the New Jersey Education Association, the New Jersey School Boards Association, and the Garden State Coalition of Schools.

Solution looking for a problem?

Stephen Carrellas, with the New Jersey chapter of the National Motorists Association, urged lawmakers to vote against the bill.

Carrellas said such enforcement "is a solution looking for a problem." His analysis of National Highway Traffic Safety data found one school-aged pedestrian fatality involving a vehicle passing a school vehicle, over a 10-year period from 2012 to 2021.

According to the New Jersey Judiciary, police in the Garden State issued more than 3,000 summonses to drivers for illegal bus passing in 2023. The count was around 2,800 in 2022.

"Non-automated enforcement would seem to be a better deterrent with additional penalties and points beyond the fine as well as a higher fine for repeat offenders," Carrellas wrote in submitted testimony.

Carrellas added that vague terminology in the bill could suggest that drivers can be fined through the system simply for failing to stop 25 feet from a stopped bus.

"Speed cameras, red light cameras, automated enforcement of school bus cameras, are all the same thing," Sen. Declan O'Scanlon, R-Monmouth, told New Jersey 101.5. "There's no improvement in safety — it's just a massive increase in fines and tickets written."

Republican Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia, who agrees with O'Scanlon that red light cameras don't reduce the number of accidents on the road, said that a bus monitoring system "is outside the realm of a red light camera."

"I think this is really important, if at the very least it brings awareness to the fact that children are in serious danger when people do not stop and adhere to the law," Fantasia said.

The Assembly Education Committee approved the measure unanimously. There is a version of the legislation in the New Jersey Senate.

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