{"id":254125,"date":"2026-05-01T16:05:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T16:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/254125\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T16:05:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T16:05:22","slug":"609-drivers-get-warnings-for-passing-duval-school-buses-illegally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/254125\/","title":{"rendered":"609 drivers get warnings for passing Duval school buses illegally"},"content":{"rendered":"

Starting today, fines are being issued for Duval County drivers caught breaking the rules<\/a> on school bus stop-arm cameras.<\/p>\n

Duval County Public Schools is equipping roughly 900 school buses with cameras designed to catch drivers who fail to stop when buses are loading and unloading students. The program spent April in a warning period. Starting May 1, those warnings become $225 fines.<\/p>\n

News4Jax asked the school district how many warnings have been issued<\/a> so far. Between April 1 and April 21, the district said, officers reviewed 803 flagged incidents. Of those, 609 citations were approved and 194 were disapproved.<\/p>\n

Here are the 10 locations with the most warning citations mailed for April 1-21:<\/p>\n

LOCATIONTICKETS MAILED3800 block of Blanding Boulevard211800 block of Edgewood Avenue West16600 block of West Beaver Street141100 block of FL- 103141700 block of Edgewood Avenue West112600 block of Lane Avenue South118300 block of Collins Road11600 block of Stockton Street107000 block of Wilson Boulevard102000 block of FL-1038<\/p>\n

In Duval County, the district says school police will review still imags and video for every recorded violation. If there is any uncertainty about the validity of the violation, a citation will not be issued.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to avoid issuing citations in error,\u201d the district said. \u201c<\/p>\n

How school bus cameras work<\/p>\n

The cameras use artificial intelligence<\/a>\u00a0to flag drivers who do not stop for a deployed stop arm and red lights. But technology is only the first step.<\/p>\n

The finding goes next goes to the vendor, Bus Patrol<\/a>,and then to the school police department.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guidance that I\u2019ve given them is, if you\u2019re not sure, don\u2019t issue the citation,\u201d said Jackson Short, chief of Duval County Public Schools Police. \u201cIt should be very obvious that the driver did violate the law, and that\u2019s the only time that we\u2019re going to issue the citation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who is required to stop \u2014 and who isn\u2019t<\/p>\n

Under Florida law, drivers must stop for any school bus that has deployed its red lights and stop arm. There are limited exceptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrivers need to stop with the exception of if there\u2019s a raised median, a divided highway or at least five feet of median separating the traffic in the opposite direction,\u201d Short said.<\/p>\n

A raised median is one that is physically elevated \u2014 often with a curb. A flat grass median qualifies for the exemption only if it is at least 5 feet wide. When in doubt, Short said, drivers should simply stop.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen in doubt, pay attention to other drivers around you. If you\u2019re not sure, stop, and just be cognizant of our students,\u201d Short said. \u201cWe\u2019re not trying to write tickets. We\u2019re not expecting to make any money. Our goal is to be so successful at this program that we don\u2019t need it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

How to contest a citation<\/p>\n

Drivers who are ticketed will receive the same evidence packets reviewed by officers \u2014 including photos of their vehicle, license plate and a record of the violation. The fine is $225 and carries no points on a driver\u2019s license.<\/p>\n

If someone other than the registered owner was driving, there are mechanisms to transfer responsibility of the citation to that driver.<\/p>\n

Drivers who believe a ticket was issued in error can request a hearing through Florida\u2019s Department of Administrative Hearings, a government entity that already handles bus camera reviews for other counties in Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the important piece \u2014 that drivers do have the opportunity to contest the citation if they believe it was issued in error,\u201d Short said.<\/p>\n

This story was produced by News4Jax<\/a>, a Jacksonville Today news partner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Starting today, fines are being issued for Duval County drivers caught breaking the rules on school bus stop-arm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-254125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}