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WATERVLIET, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Big yellow school buses on the road are designed to be seen. Yet, time and time again as seen on camera, it seems some drivers don’t.
Robin Donovan, a bus driver for the Watervliet City School District, said, “When you hit the horn, they look at you like ‘What? I’m not doing anything. I’m already halfway through. It’s ok.’”
It’s a daily occurrence for Donovan, who has been driving school buses for 22 years.
“I’ll have one to two cars a day — a day, yes. It gets frustrating,” she said.
To make that ride safer, Bus Patrol has been partnering with school districts like Watervliet to install their stop arm cameras and leveraging artificial intelligence, dubbed Ava, to detect illegal passings. Steve Randazoo with Bus Patrol explained, “We’ve coded Ava to be able to understand the difference between a parked car, a car in motion, and other objects she sees on the road. She’s hooked into the telemetry of the school bus. She knows when the arm comes out; she knows when the red lights are flashing.”
Turning the school bus into a smart bus. On average, it costs $10,000 to outfit each bus with the system. “It’s actually cost free to the school, cost free to the municipality. Only violators who break the law fund this program into perpetuity.”
Superintendent of Watervliet City Schools Dr. Donald Stevens added, “That’s the great thing. The school district is off the hook.”
The Bus Patrol system automatically identifies and tags license plates so drivers like Donovan can keep her attention on the road and her students. “I can’t wait for them. I’m hoping that people will realize once they start getting that ticket in the mail, they say, hey, let’s pay attention to the road versus the phone,” she said.
With 15 buses to equip in the district, Dr. Stevens told NEWS10 it’ll be a few more weeks until all of the buses are equipped with the technology.
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