Prince George’s County Public Schools launches school bus safety program to protect students

BusPatrol announces a new partnership in Maryland with Prince George’s County Public Schools. The School District is the latest to launch a school bus safety program to protect students as they travel to and from school.

As part of the program, 1,216 buses at Prince George’s County have been equipped with safety technology including stop-arm cameras to deter drivers from illegally passing school buses. This has been provided at zero cost to the School Districts or taxpayers, and revenue from citations will be used to fund the installation and maintenance of the technology over a five-year term.

Maryland school districts including Queen Anne, Carroll, and Montgomery Counties are already working with BusPatrol to improve student safety. In total, more than 3,500 Maryland school buses now have access to the technology, protecting an estimated 175,000 students.

According to data from NASDPTS, there are an estimated 17 million stop-arm violations each school year in the US. In Maryland, school bus drivers recorded a total of 3,194 violations in a single day in 2019, as reported in The Baltimore Sun. Every time a driver illegally passes a stopped school bus, they put a child at risk.

The BusPatrol program is the most deployed school bus safety program in the US and is proven to reduce the number of stop-arm violations through education and enforcement. Communities that have implemented a BusPatrol program have seen a 30% reduction in illegal passings of school buses year-on-year.

Speaking about the program, PGCPS Chief Executive Officer Dr. Monica Goldson said: “As operators of one of the largest school bus fleets in the nation, we are constantly exploring new ways to ensure safe and dependable student transportation. The new stop-arm cameras that will capture video of traffic violations are just one way we are leveraging technology to improve student safety both on and off of school buses.”