Fairfax County plans to attach arm cameras on the outside of buses to monitor vehicles that pass by a school bus when the stop-arm signal is shown. Beginning on April 9, the county will install the camera system to 50 buses to capture footage of any vehicles that do not stop at the bus’s stop-arm signal.

“Having cameras outside the bus would be a great idea,” sophomore Soraya Lohman said. “The camera would increase the safety of the students because sometimes cars don’t stop when they are passing an unloading bus, and that is very dangerous [due to the] possibility that they could hit a student.”

While the program begins in April, the county will only start to issue citations to drivers that illegally pass by a bus’s “stop arm” after May 12. Drivers that have received a citation must pay a $250 fine or attend court to contest the ticket.

“Knowing you can get a $250 ticket is going to help out with people paying attention to those stop arm signals,” SRO Scott Davis said.

The county plans to expand this program across the entire bus fleet pending feedback from law enforcement. They hope to address a chronic problem with drivers ignoring bus stop arms.

“Once we know that the police department or the court are satisfied with the cameras, we can expand the program,” FCPS chief operating officer Andy Mueck said. “Our main objective with these cameras is to keep students safe.”