By Pat Jenkins The Dispatch This is the week that Bethel School District starts going live with bus-mounted cameras in an attempt to keep students safe from inattentive motorists. On Monday, 10 of the district's school buses began carrying the cameras. From now on, images they capture of vehicles that pass buses illegally will result in $394 fines from the Pierce County Sheriff Department. The district and county authorities have been building up to the camera surveillance. Last year, in a five-day test of the system, the cameras recorded 23 violations in which drivers passed buses that were stopped to let students on or off. Those results, coupled with another day last year when bus drivers reported more than 50 violations, have helped officials decide to rotate the camera-equipped buses among routes where they're needed the most. American Traffic Solutions (ATS), a company that also makes camera systems for catching red-light runners, is the contractor for Bethel's bus cameras. Bethel is one of the first school districts in Washington to use photo-enforcement of traffic laws that require cars to stop on two-lane roads when school buses' red lights are flashing and stop paddles are extended. Motorists that don't obey the law are a serious safety issue nationally. In a study in 2011 by the Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, approximately 76,000 illegal passes of buses in a combined 28 states were reported in one day. That would equate to 13 million infractions in a full school year, according to officials. Washington's Legislature in 2011 passed a state law allowing cameras on buses to catch such violators. The Bethel School Board later authorized the district to launch its camera system, which automatically captures images of offending vehicles. Their license numbers, make, model and year are required for authorities to send notices of fines to the owners of offending vehicles.
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