Drivers in Hall County who blow past a stopped school bus are no longer getting a warning letter in the mail — starting this month, they’re getting a $1,000 bill. The county has expanded its stop-arm camera program to 50 school buses, and as of October, violations caught on camera carry the full fine instead of a pass.
The jump follows two years of ramping up enforcement. According to WSB-TV, Hall County launched a pilot camera program two years ago, expanded it to 16 buses, and has now pushed it to 50. The cameras record vehicles that pass a bus while its stop arm is extended, and those clips get sent to the Hall County Sheriff’s Office, where a deputy reviews the footage and decides whether a citation is warranted.
The numbers from the past two months show why officials felt the warnings phase needed to end. The station’s report notes the cameras recorded 131 potential violations in August and 190 in September. Citations issued before October came with warnings only; any flagged starting this month carries the $1,000 fine.
A Bus Driver’s View From the Front Seat
Rosie Wilson, a Hall County school bus driver, told the outlet she regularly watches drivers ignore the stop arm entirely. She said she counted three separate violations on a single route in one day. “Yesterday I had three … just one route,” Wilson said, per the same account. She said she’d like to see cameras installed on her own bus, and added that the violations seem to happen more in the afternoon than the morning…