After hearing some emphatic comments from school bus drivers, the Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday voted to extend a contract with the Cobb County School District for the use of cameras that record traffic violations at bus stop points.
The measure, which passed by a unanimous 5-0 vote and extends the contract with American Traffic Solutions for a year, was necessary since it had expired due to legal reasons.
At issue is whether citations issued from the cameras are enforceable under state law.
“All of us on the board support the program and we are glad to renew it,” Commission Chairman Mike Boyce said. “We are already working with our legislative delegation to fix the issues that were raised.”
The extension allows the Cobb County Police Department to review the recordings of suspected violations and approve issuing citations.
Before the vote, some drivers urged commissioners not to delay any further. Some said they are troubled how many drivers still ignore stop-arm signs and threaten the safety of children getting on and off buses.
“People don’t know what danger their children are in at the bus stop,” said a Meredith May Banks, a driver who mentioned that drivers are trained to tell students to “stay back” and “stay alive” and not stand near the street.
In 2011, the Georgia legislature passed a law permitting stop-arm cameras two years after the death of Karla Campos, a kindergartener at Mountain View Elementary School. She was killed when she was hit by a car after getting off a bus.
Two Northeast Cobb mothers, Sheri Lewis and Mandi Call, began Operation Stop Arm to campaign for the law.
In 2012 Cobb County government and the Cobb school district entered into a five-year contract to purchase cameras and issue citations.
The CCSD has estimated that fewer than 1,000 citations are issued, down from around 2,000 or so when the cameras were first installed.
