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In 2021, Bridget Monroe’s son, a senior in high school, was hit by a driver while exiting a school bus on Dewey Avenue.
“The school bus was stopped, the lights were on, the stop sign was extended and flashing,” said Monroe, who currently serves as a Rochester City councilmember, at a recent board meeting. “This woman (behind the bus) decided whatever was going on in her life was too important to wait for that little bit of time.
“So, she went into the oncoming road of traffic going 40 to 45 miles in a 35-mph zone and hit my son,” Monroe continued. “His blood and hair was found in her windshield when the car was eventually recovered. But it was a hit-and-run. She left him for what could have been dead in the middle of Dewey Avenue.”
Thankfully, her son fell in a way that did not take his life. He managed to crawl out of the street and was aided by other motorists, whose response Monroe praised, including an off-duty firefighter who administered emergency medical care.
Monroe’s experience is far from the only case of school bus stop violations. For example, said Ryan Monell, senior vice president of BusPatrol, since installing the company’s stop-arm cameras in 550 buses last October, 22,000 violation citations in Buffalo have been recorded.
The Rochester City School District’s commissioners hope to reduce school bus stop violations with the unanimous approval, among those present at the board’s Mar. 27 meeting, of a new stop-arm camera program.
“The silver lining in the number of tickets that have been issued (in Buffalo) is that we’ve already seen behavior changing,” Monell said. “Meaning that the number of events in terms of the buses and cars that are passing when children are getting off and on the bus is already going down.”
After BusPatrol installs its stop-arm cameras on school buses, the process goes into full effect. It begins by recording incidents, which are then screened using artificial intelligence and then further reviewed by a BusPatrol quality assurance team.
Actual violations are passed on to law enforcement officials, who can approve or disapprove of the notice of violation. BusPatrol then mails the notice, and collects payment or manages court correspondence on behalf of the city. Under state law, individuals are allowed to challenge tickets in traffic court.
Monell said the company’s approach keeps administrative costs, such as mailing out ticket violations, from burdening municipalities and schools. For example, the installation of stop-arm cameras (about $10,000 per bus) is from BusPatrol’s own pocket.
In fact, the entire program is cost-free for taxpayers. With BusPatrol’s violator-funded model, the company’s revenues come from accrued tickets. Fines typically range from $250 to $300, according to other similar programs.
Monell said BusPatrol does viability studies based on prior experience in similar cities and is confident its system will work in Rochester as well. Still, he added, BusPatrol will not hold the city responsible if revenue fails to cover the capital investment cost.
“The administration for Malik Evans and City Council, their conversations have always been that the revenue is split into something that benefits our families,” Commissioner Beatriz LeBron-Harris said after concerns were raised about revenue splits by colleagues Cynthia Elliott and Isaiah Santiago. “I do have every faith that the administration will hold true to that.”
The revenue split was not detailed at the meeting.
Interim RCSD Superintendent Demario Strickland said the student leadership council was in full support of the stop-arm plan and also provided ideas of what revenue could go toward.
BusPatrol is not purely punitive. Monell said that education and roadway improvement are a large part of its work, citing public service campaigns and providing data on hotspot violation areas for additional traffic signage as examples.
“What we’ve found is that, for those who receive a violation and a ticket in the mail, nine times out of 10, we don’t see that person commit a violation again,” said Monell. “Most folks don’t understand some of the nuances, so we want to make sure this isn’t just a ‘gotcha program,’ but one that actually creates a safer environment for all our students.
“We’re very committed to making sure this is a program that is driven by the community. If it’s not driven by the community, then it’s not going to work,” he added.
Across BusPatrol’s over 400 contracted school districts, he said, there was clear improvement in driving safety. Even in newer districts like Buffalo, incidents have been falling.
BusPatrol is already familiar with Monroe County; it has similar stop-arm camera agreements with suburban school districts in the area. In 2023, cameras were installed in school buses in the Hilton, Webster, East Irondequoit, Greece, and Monroe One BOCES districts, and recorded more than 3,500 citations.
While an official date for the stop-arm cameras to be installed has not been announced, Strickland’s recommendation for the program urged adoption in the 2025-2026 school year.
Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist.
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