Police Issued More Than 54,000 School Bus Citations to Motorists in 2018-19

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^^I just cross-checked with the comments on the Bethesda Beat piece and found out who's posting these comments above on DCUM.

Asking that person for supporting information is a waste of time.

You didn't ask.

What's your question? You have Google?

Force Multiplier
BusPatrol
alertbus.com
Robert Leonard
Rick Sorrells
Larry Duncan
Slater Washburn Swartwood Sr
Dwyane Carraway

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^I just cross-checked with the comments on the Bethesda Beat piece and found out who's posting these comments above on DCUM.

Asking that person for supporting information is a waste of time.

You didn't ask.

What's your question? You have Google?

Force Multiplier
BusPatrol
alertbus.com
Robert Leonard
Rick Sorrells
Larry Duncan
Slater Washburn Swartwood Sr
Dwyane Carraway

FBI
bribes
kickbacks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have gotten a few that are bull shit - we were stopping but triggers the camera anyway, or had evidently stopped a millimeter ahead of where we were supposed to. They just print the tickets bc they know people won’t fight them.

I also didn’t know that you are supposed to stop even on the other side of a six lane road with a meridian (even when the kids aren’t going to be crossing). That seems excessive.

You don’t have to stop if their is a median. Divided road don’t apply

You are correct that the law doesn’t require that you stop if there is a median, but I received an automated ticket for doing so. The bus was so far away and separated by other vehicles that I didn’t even know from my car that it was in the other side of the street beyond the median. The bus camera was mounted high do it could see over the cars in the left lane closest to the median so it could ticket me in the curb lane. The camera had to be placed there so it could catch cars that were no where near the bus. The 4-5 cars who passed me probably also all got tickets.

I agree that many people don’t know the law and it can be very dangerous to pedestrians to pass a bus. Educating people is what should be done to improve safety. The cameras are only there to increase county revenues, not for safety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have gotten a few that are bull shit - we were stopping but triggers the camera anyway, or had evidently stopped a millimeter ahead of where we were supposed to. They just print the tickets bc they know people won’t fight them.

I also didn’t know that you are supposed to stop even on the other side of a six lane road with a meridian (even when the kids aren’t going to be crossing). That seems excessive.

You don’t have to stop if their is a median. Divided road don’t apply

You are correct that the law doesn’t require that you stop if there is a median, but I received an automated ticket for doing so. The bus was so far away and separated by other vehicles that I didn’t even know from my car that it was in the other side of the street beyond the median. The bus camera was mounted high do it could see over the cars in the left lane closest to the median so it could ticket me in the curb lane. The camera had to be placed there so it could catch cars that were no where near the bus. The 4-5 cars who passed me probably also all got tickets.

I agree that many people don’t know the law and it can be very dangerous to pedestrians to pass a bus. Educating people is what should be done to improve safety. The cameras are only there to increase county revenues, not for safety.

Plus enforcement. For example, cameras on school buses.

Where in Montgomery County is there a road so big that if you're on one side of it, you can't see a school bus on the other side? And how did the school bus camera nonetheless manage to snap you for a ticket, at that great distance?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have gotten a few that are bull shit - we were stopping but triggers the camera anyway, or had evidently stopped a millimeter ahead of where we were supposed to. They just print the tickets bc they know people won’t fight them.

I also didn’t know that you are supposed to stop even on the other side of a six lane road with a meridian (even when the kids aren’t going to be crossing). That seems excessive.

You don’t have to stop if their is a median. Divided road don’t apply

You are correct that the law doesn’t require that you stop if there is a median, but I received an automated ticket for doing so. The bus was so far away and separated by other vehicles that I didn’t even know from my car that it was in the other side of the street beyond the median. The bus camera was mounted high do it could see over the cars in the left lane closest to the median so it could ticket me in the curb lane. The camera had to be placed there so it could catch cars that were no where near the bus. The 4-5 cars who passed me probably also all got tickets.

I agree that many people don’t know the law and it can be very dangerous to pedestrians to pass a bus. Educating people is what should be done to improve safety. The cameras are only there to increase county revenues, not for safety.

Plus enforcement. For example, cameras on school buses.

Where in Montgomery County is there a road so big that if you're on one side of it, you can't see a school bus on the other side? And how did the school bus camera nonetheless manage to snap you for a ticket, at that great distance?

But enforcement isn't happening. The fines aren't being paid by the majority of the drivers.

Drive around Montgomery County one day, lots of places where the roads are wide. The comment relayed an instance where a citation was given where one would not be in violation.
How did the camera take a picture? It's what they do. They take pictures, but only of what they are aimed at. They don't have information on the activation of the yellow lights in relation to the distance and they don't necessarily show the surroundings (no median shown).

[Anonymous]

MCPS gets zero dollars.
Montgomery County Police get zero dollars.

The "scheme" costs Montgomery County hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in staff to process all these citations.

The cameras are not calibrated, so they actually have no idea if an actual violation has occurred. The owners of this "scheme" (one is currently in prison for bribing public officials in Dallas, TX) hope drivers will just pay up and keep the cash flowing.

The reality is that most of the citations are not being paid. Either drivers are throwing away the citations or someone in the chain of custody of these fines is skimming. The citations are paid to a house in Louisiana.

See this post on the Parents' Coalition blog for some of the information. More can be found by reading the "Force Multiplier" posts on the blog.

Friday, March 8, 2019
MD House Told $6.4M of Bus Fine $$ Can't Be Found

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS gets zero dollars.
Montgomery County Police get zero dollars.

The "scheme" costs Montgomery County hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in staff to process all these citations.

The cameras are not calibrated, so they actually have no idea if an actual violation has occurred. The owners of this "scheme" (one is currently in prison for bribing public officials in Dallas, TX) hope drivers will just pay up and keep the cash flowing.

The reality is that most of the citations are not being paid. Either drivers are throwing away the citations or someone in the chain of custody of these fines is skimming. The citations are paid to a house in Louisiana.

See this post on the Parents' Coalition blog for some of the information. More can be found by reading the "Force Multiplier" posts on the blog.

Friday, March 8, 2019
MD House Told $6.4M of Bus Fine $$ Can't Be Found

Snort,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS gets zero dollars.
Montgomery County Police get zero dollars.

The "scheme" costs Montgomery County hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in staff to process all these citations.

The cameras are not calibrated, so they actually have no idea if an actual violation has occurred. The owners of this "scheme" (one is currently in prison for bribing public officials in Dallas, TX) hope drivers will just pay up and keep the cash flowing.

The reality is that most of the citations are not being paid. Either drivers are throwing away the citations or someone in the chain of custody of these fines is skimming. The citations are paid to a house in Louisiana.

See this post on the Parents' Coalition blog for some of the information. More can be found by reading the "Force Multiplier" posts on the blog.

Friday, March 8, 2019
MD House Told $6.4M of Bus Fine $$ Can't Be Found

Snort,

Double snort

Now $14 mil in fine money is missing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The other day a bus pulled over. My mind registered “bus” so I stopped. The people behind me were not happy with me. It was a metro bus. My fault for stopping but I think the message has been driven home. Stop for the school buses.

Fines are still not being paid.

I paid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The other day a bus pulled over. My mind registered “bus” so I stopped. The people behind me were not happy with me. It was a metro bus. My fault for stopping but I think the message has been driven home. Stop for the school buses.

Fines are still not being paid.

I paid

Who did you pay? Guy in Louisiana?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot of people don't know this law. They should slap it on buses and do a public education campaign. As a foreigner who was allowed to drive without passing a DC or MD driver's license, I did not know this at first, because my home country does not have this law.

Are you a diplomat? I'm not but am a foreigner. I thought when I first came to DC from abroad that I still had to do the written test. You should read the road code even if they give you a license as a diplomat because of the road rule differences eg where I'm from there's no turn on red, and I thought that four way stop sign intersections must have been designed by Monty Python when I first saw one. When I go to a country that drives on the other side of the road, I've encountered that the car rental company makes people watch a video of that country's road rules before giving them the keys.

[Anonymous]

So what you're saying is bussing pays for itself!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what you're saying is bussing pays for itself!

It's a huge profit center for the county. You think they'd have more of it!

[Anonymous]

I’m confused by this “MCPS/police don’t get any money” sentiment. Doesn’t money collected from tickets go to the county and thus become part of county income, which is used to fund the budget, which includes, among money other things, money for the police and schools?

[Anonymous]

My husband got one.

The bus was on westbound Randolph and he was on eastbound Randolph. It's a major 6 lane road separated by a huge median strip. Who knew everyone needed to stop on the opposite side of the median strip? What's the purpose? Kids weren't crossing (it wasn't at a light or crosswalk). And nobody stopped.