(UN)RELIABLE SOURCES:

DON'T PASS MY BUS

by FRANK O'DONNELL
March 23, 2008

The headline grabbed my attention: “Board OKs cameras on school buses to test system.”

Cameras on school buses.

My thoughts went immediately to this past December’s devastating snowstorm, and those poor kids in Providence who got stuck on their school buses well into the night.

Cameras on the buses could have alerted the proper authorities – those who hadn’t left work early, anyway – to the situation and perhaps helped dispatch help in a more timely fashion.

Kids right here in North Providence arrived home late that day as well – though nowhere near as late. I suppose that having cameras on the buses to help monitor their progress might have made many feel more at ease.

So I read on, and was surprised to find the cameras were chiefly designed to catch the people who routinely ignore school bus flashing red signals and pass while the bus is picking up or dropping off its passengers.

A company in Cranston came to our marginally cohesive school department with the idea. Cameras mounted on the school bus would capture the license plates of cars passing illegally.

With the proof properly captured, the motorist would be reported and fined – by mail, presumably, though the billing method was not made clear.

According the president of the video company, only 115 drivers were cited in the entire state of Rhode Island last year, and a total of $15,000 in fines was collected.

But, says the president, he interviewed more than 100 school bus drivers who say that three to four motorists illegally pass their buses on a daily basis.

Armed with those figures, the company president says that if each of North Providence’s 45 school buses “catch” one illegal passer on a daily basis, a total of $2.4 million dollars could be on the line.

That’s about $300 per pass – up from the $130 per fine reported statewide last year.

So it looks like the fine is increasing – no problem with that.

Here’s where it all gets blurry.

The school department gets 12.5% of the “revenue” from the fines. So does the town.

Apply your math skills to this and you’ll realize that 75% is left, which goes to the video company.

That comes to $1.8 million.

Sure, video equipment is expensive, and it costs money to have people monitor the feeds. But $1.8 million?

And why is the concern about revenue in the first place?

Shouldn’t the focus be on the safety of the kids getting on and off the bus?

As the parent of one of those passengers, I’m more concerned with stopping the people who scoff at the law and pass the bus without regard to what could happen?

Is receiving a $300 fine in the mail going to be a deterrent?

Isn’t it more effective to get the full treatment of being pulled over by one of our muscle police cars? I suggest that the flashing lights in your rearview – coupled with a $300 fine – will hit a lot closer to home than a bill from some company in Cranston.

Of course, we can’t have a police officer trailing every bus every day – that makes no sense. But we can put police radios on the buses so the drivers can call in the violation in real time.

Better yet, mount a special laser to the driver’s side of the bus. When someone makes the move to pass illegally, the laser is deployed to melt the passing car’s tires.

That way, the police officers can round up the offenders at their leisure. I understand it’s really hard to get away on melted tires.

And the town gets to keep the entire fine. Plus the towing fee.

Better than a $1.8 million dollar windfall, ladies and gentlemen.

You’re welcome.

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Frank O' Donnell, a comedian from North Providence, is the entertainment writer for the Breeze newspapers. Contact him at frankocomedy@cox.net with comments or story ideas or simply to join the North Providence Gang.