Miami-Dade, Florida – Cameras mounted on school buses throughout Florida are catching a lot of drivers who are passing stopped buses unlawfully, which seems to be a creative way to improve student safety while resulting in a lot of traffic tickets. This project is in accordance with a Florida law enacted in 2023 that authorizes the installation of cameras on school buses and in school zones for the purpose of monitoring speeding and reckless driving around young children.
These initiatives primarily seek to make sure that motorists obey the traffic laws mandating that they yield to school buses when picking up or dropping off students. The Miami-Dade County School District in South Florida has installed these surveillance cameras on 950 of its buses, demonstrating the power of the state’s law enforcement. More than 11,500 drivers have received tickets in the first two weeks of the new school year for driving past stopped school buses. At a cost of $225 each infraction, the fines are anticipated to add roughly $2.5 million to the district’s revenue.
The money collected in these fines is reinvested in the educational system to fund additional safety precautions and instructional programs. The Miami-Dade Police have posted an eye-catching video on social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, that shows many instances of vehicles disobeying school buses’ flashing stop lights, putting children crossing the street in danger.
Similarly, Lake County in Central Florida has caught speeders in school zones by installing speed cameras in carefully selected, hidden spots. Since these cameras have issued more than 770 warning citations in just the first month, authorities say they are having a significant effect on reducing reckless driving.
These cameras have an easy-to-use yet efficient operation. When a car speeds more than ten miles per hour beyond the posted limit, law enforcement sets the cameras to record the violation. Depending on the seriousness of the violation, offenders are subject to either a warning or a $100 fine within 30 days of the incident. The driver avoids accruing points on their record if the fine is paid on time.
This strict traffic policing strategy in and around school zones is a reaction to a larger national issue. According to data from the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, there are more than 43.5 million incidents of school buses being illegally passed in the United States each year. Florida’s deployment of technology in the fight against this problem is a critical step toward guaranteeing the safety of the students and creating a more secure commuter environment.
More than 10,000 drivers caught in the first two weeks of school
Over 11,500 drivers have been charged for failing to stop when school buses activate their stop signs as a result of Miami-Dade public schools’ implementation of a new camera system on its buses in the first 13 days of the new school year, according to a Miami Herald story from late August. This program, which imposes a $225 fine on offenders per offense, was launched in response to Florida’s July 2023 approval for the installation of cameras on school buses in an effort to improve student safety.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the Miami-Dade Police Department, and BusPatrol—which oversees the buses and uses high-resolution artificial intelligence technology to take pictures of noncompliant drivers’ license plates—are working together to implement this new safety measure.
Despite the fact that this important safety legislation is meant to avoid incidents involving children getting on or off buses, the shocking amount of infractions highlighted by these citations exposes the widespread disregard for this critical safety law. The collaboration with BusPatrol, which operates in 17 states, highlights a nationwide issue.
