The first week BusPatrol cameras went live on the School District of Lee County buses, more than 1,100 illegal passes were captured during the warning period.<\/p>\n
District Spokesperson Rob Spicker said 261 of the more than 1,100 illegal passes that were captured, have been verified by the Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office, and more than 850 are still under review.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach passing, the Sheriff\u2019s Office verifies as illegal will result in a warning letter to the registered owner of the car,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The 30-day advisory period began after a join announcement from Superintendent Dr. Denise Carlin, Sheriff Carmine Marceno and BusPatrol.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a social media campaign this month with regular posts reminding drivers about the law, so they are prepared for enforcement,\u201d Spicker said. \u201cMany of our community partners are sharing these posts to help spread the word. We have a special page on our website devoted to BusPatrol with answers to some frequently answered questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition, the message is shared on every school\u2019s website banner directing families to the BusPatrol page.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur families are getting emails and flyers from the School District about the program as well,\u201d he said. \u201cBefore enforcement starts in December, we will hold another media outreach event, send advisories to our parents, and multiple reminders on our social media.\u201d<\/p>\n
When enforcement begins Dec. 8, the illegal passing will result in a $225 citation.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is to change behavior, so the message is start now before you risk a $225 citation,\u201d Spicker said. \u201cEvery time a bus is illegally passed, the students getting on or off are put at risk. We would ask drivers to think about protecting children and coming to a stop when a bus has the stop arms extended and the lights flashing.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said according to BusPatrol, 90% of drivers who receive a citation never get a second one.<\/p>\n
\u201cLearning the lesson now will save drivers money, and more importantly, save lives,\u201d Spicker said.<\/p>\n
Each bus will have 11 new cameras installed with about half focusing on the outside of the bus to capture those illegal passings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey use proprietary Artificial Intelligence to identify passings that appear to break the law,\u201d he said. \u201cThe video is sent to the Sheriff\u2019s Office for review. If law enforcement determines a violation did occur, then a $225 citation will be issued.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other half of the cameras are located inside of the bus, which have upgraded the system prior to the BusPatrol system. Spicker said the BusPatrol cameras allow both the Sheriff\u2019s Office and the school district to monitor buses in real time, just like they do at the schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there is disturbance, a parent trying to get on board, an accident, or any other situation, we immediately know what\u2019s happening and can respond better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The revenue from the citations, by law, must be used for the installation, operation, or maintenance of school bus infraction detection systems on school buses, including student transportation safety initiatives, driver recruitment and retention stipends, or other student transportation safety enhancement, Spicker said.<\/p>\n
The message the district continues to spread is to take the initiative seriously.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents lives are at stake. Act now, stop when a bus is stopped. Don\u2019t wait for a $225 citation to change your behavior,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first week BusPatrol cameras went live on the School District of Lee County buses, more than 1,100…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-59924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59924","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=59924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}