GREECE, N.Y. — In just 12 weeks, more than 1,100 drivers in Greece have passed a stopped school bus with its red lights on.

News10NBC Investigative Reporter Jennifer Lewke learned that statistic Monday while talking with Monroe County Executive Adam Bello about the new program that tickets these drivers.

Greece schools added cameras on all of their buses and over the past 12 weeks, in just that one district, they’ve issued 1,100 violations to drivers who blew by the red lights while children were being picked up or dropped off.

In addition to Greece, Hilton, Webster, East Irondequoit, and BOCES 1 have added cameras to the stop arms on their buses and seen similar numbers.

Drivers who are caught on the cameras get a violation notice in the mail with a picture from the camera and are issued a fine. If you don’t pay the fine, you get turned in to the credit bureau and can face civil action.

The stop-arm camera program is funded by the fines, the county gets any revenue beyond that.

The county executive tells Lewke he’s hoping other districts will join the program, not for the money but for the safety of the kids onboard.

“I really hope this encourages everyone to participate like I said there’s no cost to the school district, there’s no cost to the property taxes or anything like that, it’s violator funded and my hope is that over time, we’re going to start to see the number of those violations decrease,” Bello said.

“Last year I rode a bus, I did one bus run for an hour and we were passed four times during that one bus run so I was not shocked so I’m really pleased that we brought the program in. I really do think it’s a way of changing behavior and the more attention it gets and the more people are being fined, I really do think it’s going to make a difference in terms of improving safety for our students,” Bello said.

The schools participating thought there might be some big numbers the first few weeks that would then slow once people realized they were being recorded. But they haven’t.

And just to be clear, the camera doesn’t even come on until the stop signs are fully out. So these aren’t people cutting it close, they’re people blowing right by them.

“If the program is free to the districts and taxpayers, why wouldn’t all of them be doing it?” Lewke asked.

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