Stopping stop-arm cameras before they are abused

On August 27, Gov. Quinn signed into law Senate Bill 923 which allows stop-arm cameras to be installed on school buses statewide. School districts would partner with a municipality or county to install and administer the stop-arm cameras violations. Violations would garner fines of up to $150 for a for a first time violation, and up to...

On August 27, Gov. Quinn signed into law Senate Bill 923 which allows stop-arm cameras to be installed on school buses statewide.

• School districts would partner with a municipality or county to install and administer the stop-arm cameras violations.

• Violations would garner fines of up to $150 for a for a first time violation, and up to a $500 fine for all subsequent violations.

As a father, I understand that to a parent nothing is more important than the safety of their children. Among parents’ greatest fears is that their children will be hurt or killed.

Many parents would understandably support a stop-arm camera program that is sold as a child safety measure. But a closer inspection of the stop-arm camera bill passed in Springfield reveals serious flaws and blurs the lines between a genuine child safety program and another big government money grab.

The first red flag with this bill is the lack of evidence the cameras even work. Neither of the of state’s two primary agencies tasked with school bus safety, the Illinois State Board of Education and the Illinois Department of Transportation, have produced any evidence to suggest the newly legalized stop-arm cameras work in reducing accidents.

Neither agency was able to produce a single study on stop-arm cameras in response to a Freedom of Information Act requests filed by the Illinois Policy Institute. Additionally, there is no provision in the new law for any state agency to monitor the program going forward.

This is a cause for concern considering automated traffic enforcement systems don’t always work and have proven in the past to make some Illinois roads more dangerous.

Take for example the city of Chicago’s red-light camera program. A professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago found a 6 percent increase in accidents at Chicago’s red-light camera intersections at the same time accidents were decreasing at non red-light camera intersections. Red-light cameras often cause erratic driving behaviors, such as slamming on brakes to avoid tickets, which end up increasing accidents.

Will drivers start to drive erratically near school buses in fear of getting tickets too?

We want to improve public safety for kids getting on and off school buses, but it’s hard to prove stop-arm cameras actually do this. The legislation doesn’t provide sufficient assurances the program was designed to improve public safety.

School districts are allowed to install stop-arm programs even if they’ve never had a single accident due to stop-arm running. It’s hard to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. Also, if accidents increase after cameras are installed there’s no provision in the law to force districts to remove the cameras.

Although individual districts are free to set their own policies, the new state law doesn’t require districts to dedicate money from fines for public safety purposes. According to state law fine revenues can be used for anything. This reinforces the belief that traffic cameras are about money, not safety.

The state of Illinois should enact requirements like those in Queensland, Australia, which requires that all red-light camera revenues must be used for road safety purposes. Revenues there are dedicated to purposes such as road safety education, accident injury rehabilitation or engineering improvements on roads where accidents happen most frequently.

I’d feel much more confident in a program whose revenues were dedicated to funding children’s rehabilitation rather than allows the money to be used to pad administrator salaries.

Also, there’s no oversight by an independent state agency. Who’s going to monitor the program for potential abuse or failure?

Before a school district elects to install the cameras the public should demand evidence that stop-arm cameras actually reduce accidents, for children and motorists alike. Parents should also gain assurances that any stop-arm program revenues be dedicated solely to fund proven public safety measures such as installing seat belts on buses or increased training for school bus drivers.

Districts who fail to do this are exploiting the public’s worst fears about child safety to justify a troubling money-making opportunity for adults.