Thirty-six school bus stop-arm violations were processed by the district in the first month of school, raising safety concerns for children at risk of being hit. Last year, the school district saw a total of 212 violations, but that number will now likely be greater. Over the summer, the district updated the cameras to help catch and curb these types of traffic violations for the sake of student safety.
Previously, buses included six cameras inside the cabin with GPS and the ability to look at each bus live via cellular connection. In 2022, they added two more cameras outside the bus for stop arm detection. Just this past year, they upgraded much of the technology, including the new stop arm cameras.
Cameras are not the only way the school district is trying to address this problem; they have also partnered with law enforcement to help combat it. They have been working with the Missouri State Highway Patrol. They are looking to add partnerships with the Platte City Police Department and the Sheriff’s Department.
According to JT Thomas, Platte County’s director of transportation, the partnership has been working well to date.
“MSHP has issued in the vicinity of 50 tickets since we started [the partnership],” JT Thomas said in an email. “To date, we have found ten HS students [but] not all of them were PCHS students.”
The cameras have also found violations by an Amazon vehicle as well as a KCMO maintenance truck running past stopped buses this year.
The MSHP needs a vehicle license number for them to take action on the violations. With the addition of the stop arm cameras, Platte County was easily and safely able to provide that information to the state. Otherwise, the bus driver had to try to capture it, and that was not a safe or reliable model.
Seeing people run school bus stop signs is nothing out of the ordinary for Brian Parks, Platte County bus driver.
“I’ve witnessed about 12 to 15 [violations] on routes so far, the last couple of years when they’ve been active,“ Parks said. “[The new cameras are] a plus of trying to keep kids, students safe in the district.”
Parks believes he has witnessed six to eight violations so far this school year, and claims that a lot of them barely pay attention to what they have just done or he can tell that they know exactly what they are doing is wrong.
“There is a lot of distraction with technology now,” Parks said. “Even though [the bus] is yellow, not a lot of people pay attention.”
The new stop arm cameras have a higher resolution and degree of reliability. They came at a cost, but one that the district finds value in.
“The first and foremost reason to have cameras on buses is for the safety of the students and drivers,” Thomas said. “Overall, the district spends $35,000 a year for service with the initial investment of approximately $160,000.”
According to the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, over 67,000 violations once occurred in a single day in 2024.
“A key thing to note,” Thomas said. “This is a national problem.”