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South Carolina Busing Students Under New Safety Law
WYFF-TV NBC 4, Aug. 18, 2014

As South Carolina’s schools open their doors for another year, one big change involves a new law. Authorities can now mount cameras onto school buses to make sure drivers are stopping when they need to. Some districts have already made the addition, others will do it throughout the year. See related coverage from WYFF-TV NBC 4.

 

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First-Hand Look at School Bus Traffic Dangers
WFTV-TV Channel 9 (Florida), Aug. 18, 2014

WFTV reporter Steve Barrett rode behind an Orange County school bus Monday morning and caught cars passing a stopped bus picking up children.

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Parents, School Officials Urge Drivers to Stop for Buses
WTVD-TV ABC 11 (North Carolina), Aug. 15, 2014

It’s becoming a growing problem at school bus stops across the state — distracted and defiant drivers refusing to stop for school buses. It’s happening at an alarming rate. Now, state officials are putting out a warning as students prepare to head back to school.

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Truck Driver Faces 2 Charges for Passing School Bus on Right
West Central Tribune (Minnesota), Aug. 14, 2014

The driver of a truck who is alleged to have frightened a 13-year-old girl by passing a school bus on the right, driving between her and the bus, is facing two misdemeanor charges for the incident. See related article from KDUZ Radio 1260 AM.

Schools, Sheriff Out to Stop Dangerous Driving Near Buses
Effingham Herald (Georgia), Aug. 14, 2014

Jimmy Helmly and Brian Mundy have no shortage of stories of local drivers not following the rules for a stopped school bus. There was the log truck that sped past the side of the bus a student was exiting. And the driver who complained about the length of time a disabled student took to board the bus.

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More Red-Light Safety Cameras Could be Miami Bound
WIOD-Radio 610 AM (Florida), Aug. 15, 2014

Miami drivers could be under the scrutiny of additional red-light cameras soon. Officials are looking over proposals to add 150 red-light cameras in three stages. County commissioners will vote on a camera vendor in November.

City Extends Red-Light Safety Camera Program
ITS International, Aug. 15, 2014

The city of Sunrise in Florida has extended its red-light camera program, with systems supplied by American Traffic Solutions (ATS), for a further three years.

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School Zone Speed Safety Cameras to Restart in September
The Daily News (Washington), Aug. 19, 2014

Longview’s school zone traffic cameras will be returning to active duty in September after being deactivated during summer vacation, according to a press release from the city. Since the start of school zone photo enforcement program in 2011, a total of 17,534 tickets have been issued.

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Speeding Driver Detected at 139 mph on 60 mph Road
North Fork View (Scotland), Aug. 17, 2014

New figures obtained by leading road safety charity the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) have revealed the top 20 recorded speeding offences in Scotland for the past 15 months. The speeds were captured on either fixed or mobile speeding cameras and ranged between 114 mph and 139 mph.

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Speed Cameras Activated in College Park
WTOP-Radio 103.5 FM (Maryland), Aug. 16, 2014

In the weeks since a high-profile press conference to address three pedestrian fatalities near the University of Maryland, several measures to increase safety have been put into place. … As of 12:01 a.m. Saturday, seven speed cameras in the City of College Park that ticketed drivers Monday to Friday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. now operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. (UMD Right Now photo)

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American Traffic Solutions is pleased to announce that the City of New Orleans, Louisiana, recently extended its road safety camera program for an additional year. The extension is the city’s third consecutive one-year renewal of a program that began in 2007. ATS is honored by the city of New Orleans’ decision and looks forward to helping the city achieve its traffic safety goals.

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ATS_RoadSafety @ATS_RoadSafety HORRIFYING VIDEO: Car crashes after running red light, gets flipped onto its roof http://tmblr.co/ZC9-Wt1Olmvo #StopOnRed

FDOT District4 @MyFDOT_SEFL Florida ranks second nationally for most illegal school bus passings per day. Red flashing lights and extended arm mean STOP.

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Colorado Talks Toll Lanes along C-470
KUSA-TV NBC 9, Aug. 19, 2014

A public meeting was held Tuesday night to discuss a notoriously busy section of highway in the south metro area: C-470 between Interstate 25 and Wadsworth Boulevard. CDOT officials say their solution to ease congestion is to add a toll lane in both directions along the 12-mile stretch of highway. The two free lanes currently in place would still exist.

Poll: Public Prefers Tolls to Taxes for Highway Repairs
Better Roads, Aug. 18, 2014

Among Americans, 73 percent agree that transportation spending is inefficient and most would rather pay for highway repairs with tolls instead of taxes, according to a Reason-Rupe poll. Out of the 1,000 people surveyed, 58 percent say they would rather pay for transportation projects with tolls. View Reason-Rupe poll.

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Commentary: A Unique Color for a Unique Purpose
Estherville News (Iowa), Aug. 15, 2014

Along with its unique color, the school bus was mechanically designed for an even higher purpose, the safe transport of our children. Unfortunately, a number of students have been injured or killed while getting on and off the bus. Most of these incidents involve other vehicles not obeying the flashing red lights when students are being picked up or dropped off.

Commentary: A Psychological Speed Limit
The New York Times, Aug. 14, 2014

On average, vehicles seriously injure or kill someone in New York every two hours; last year, 173 pedestrians were killed. Last week Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed a bill allowing New York City to enact a citywide default speed limit of 25 miles per hour as part of its “Vision Zero” campaign to reduce traffic deaths to nil. As much political wrangling as the bill took, a sterner challenge to the new limit looms: Getting drivers to obey it.

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Editorial: Who Do Toll Deadbeats Think They Are?
Staten Island Advance (New York), Aug. 19, 2014

The Port Authority recently filed a slew of lawsuits in state Supreme Court seeking payment from eight Staten Island-based registered vehicle-owners who appear to have a habit of not paying tolls on P.A. bridges. All told, these eight defendants managed to avoid paying tolls on authority facilities 3,761 times. That’s an average of over 470 violations apiece, if you can believe that.

Editorial: Let Cameras Help Catch Scofflaws Passing School Buses
The Augusta Chronicle (Georgia), Aug. 17, 2014

Every motorist makes a mistake now and then. However, there are some rules of the road that even the most middling motorists know not to shirk. And illegally passing a stopped school bus is one of them. Those big, yellow vehicles deserve a wide berth and our utmost attention because they carry society’s most precious cargo — our children.

Editorial: Look Out for School Buses
The Commercial News (Illinois), Aug. 16, 2014

With the beginning of school comes the reminder for motorists to watch out for children, and to obey the laws regarding school buses. Some school buses now carry video cameras so that violators can be easily identified, and bus drivers can call local police when they see a violation occur. The cost of such a violation can be as much as $10,000 in Indiana.

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Letter to the Editor: Keep Cameras and Lower Crash Rate
MyCentralJersey.com (New Jersey), Aug. 14, 2014

Just looking at traffic fatalities in New Jersey we unfortunately kill off about 600 people a year, and of that number about one-third are pedestrians. All traffic regulations work together to keep us reasonably safe, and they all need to be observed.

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Bill Rhyne, Corporal with South Carolina Highway Patrol
“These school zones, those signs are there for a reason. It’s the absolute speed. If it says 25 mph, that’s the speed limit, that’s what you need to go. You’ve got kids that are going to be excited to be going back to school, they’re going to be breaking away from mom and dad, running across those crosswalks.”
Bill Rhyne, Corporal with South Carolina Highway Patrol
WYFF-TV NBC 4, Aug. 18, 2014

“After three fatalities, it was felt that by lowering the speed limit and enforcing it more strictly, we would hope to reduce near misses and pedestrian fatalities.”
Bob Ryan, Director of Public Services in College Park
WTOP-Radio 103.5 FM (Maryland), Aug. 16, 2014 

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“The problem is persisting. Three-thousand times a day or more during the school year a motorist illegally passes a stopped school bus in North Carolina.
Derek Graham, North Carolina Department of Instruction Section Chief of Transportation Services
WTVD-TV ABC 11, Aug. 15, 2014

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Indiana
Officials say the number of school bus stop-arm violations continues to grow. Indiana State Police recorded 932 violations in 1999. As of April of this year, they had 2,577 violations listed. SOURCE: The Commercial News (Illinois), Aug. 16, 2014.

Washington
Since the start of Longview’s school zone photo enforcement program in 2011, a total of 17,534 tickets have been issued. The location recording the highest number of violations in 2014 was at Mark Morris, where a total of 3,258 tickets were dispensed. SOURCE: The Daily News, Aug. 19, 2014.