Carroll County Schools Partner with American Traffic Solutions For School Bus Stop Arm Safety Initiative

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., April 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Carroll County School District will partner with American Traffic Solutions (ATS) to deploy CrossingGuard®, ATS' new technology to help school districts address the growing problem of illegal passing of school buses that are stopped and boarding or disembarking children.  Georgia leads the nation in school bus fatalities, with nearly a dozen children killed in the past five years.  In response to this alarming trend, last year, the Georgia legislature approved the use of cameras to help enforce school bus stop-arm laws.

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"Our goal is to educate and awaken drivers to the dangers of illegally passing school buses," said Jackie Coffee, Director of Transportation for Carroll County Schools.  "Some Georgia drivers are not educated on the Georgia School Bus Stop laws and are unintentionally putting our students' lives in danger. Keeping our children safe is our number one priority and we want to change driver behaviors in a positive way to protect the lives of the children who ride a school bus to and from school every day.  This is an imperative safety need and we are proud to have this additional tool to help protect our children."

The CrossingGuard® school bus arm safety solution mounts purpose-built cameras on the side of the school bus. When the stop arm is deployed, the camera automatically detects a vehicle illegally passing the stop arm in either direction and captures video of the violation and still images of a vehicle's license plate.

The violation video and license plate images are then reviewed by law enforcement for approval prior to a citation being issued.  In Georgia, the penalty for a first stop-arm violation will warrant the vehicle's owner a $300 fine for the first violation, a $750 fine for the second, and a third violation in a five-year period will result in a $1,000 fine.

"We are excited about this collaboration between the Carroll County Sheriff's Office, Carroll County Schools and American Traffic Solutions," said Sheriff Terry Langley. "This new technology will, no doubt, enhance the safety of our highways by protecting all of us--most importantly our most valued resource, our children."

Carroll County Schools expect to have camera's issuing violations at the start of the 2012-2013 school year.

SOURCE American Traffic Solutions