EDITORIAL: School bus camera plan not about the children

Published 3:15 p.m. ET May 17, 2017 | Updated 23 hours ago

After the deadly bus crash that killed five children in Tennessee, many are asking: Why aren't seat belts required on school buses? Video provided by Newsy Newslook

A camera sits mounted next to a school bus stop sign.(Photo: File photo)Buy Photo

New Jersey's latest attempt to stick it to motorists under the guise of supposed safety is up for an Assembly committee vote Thursday, this time dressed up in "protecting our children" garb.

The proposal to allow installation of school bus traffic cameras sounds wonderfully laudable on the surface. Who, after all, could argue with a system that has the potential to enhance the safety of our kids as they enter and exit school buses? Motorists who violate traffic rules near school buses certainly deserve to be punished, don't they? Even the tiniest of violations is too much; ignorance of the laws is no excuse, and our children are at stake.

That's the pitch behind this proposal, in which violators would receive tickets in the mail through an automated system disturbingly similar to the much-hated red-light cameras that tormented motorists until lawmakers wisely chose not to renew the program. In fact, one of the companies pushing for the bus cameras — Redflex Traffic Systems — was also part of the red-light camera fiasco, a reminder that these programs are most of all about money, not safety.

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Remember what turned the red-light cameras into such a scourge. They would generate tickets for even the most meaningless of technical violations — a "rolling stop" at a right-on-red intersection on an empty highway, for example. Traffic lights themselves were sometimes improperly calibrated, providing shorter yellow caution lights than required given road and speed-limit conditions, artificially creating more violations. The cameras quickly became municipal cash cows, with at best mixed safety results.

The school bus cameras would in some respects be even worse. Some of the applicable rules are largely unknown to motorists. For instance, cars must stop at least 25 feet from a stopped school bus. Even drivers who know that rule can't instantly gauge that distance. Someone easing to a safe stop at 24 feet gets a ticket, while a speeder slamming on the brakes at 25 feet won't? Motorists can proceed past a stopped bus if traveling on the opposite side of a median, at no more than 10 miles per hour. They'll get a ticket at 11 mph? Penalties for violations would be increased as well, the better to turn big profits.

There's also no indication of unusual or heightened safety concerns around school buses in New Jersey that would prompt some type of enforcement reform. We recognize the loss of even one child's life to an accident is too much, but regardless of what government does it can't guarantee safety at all times. We could outlaw playground equipment on which children could be injured, perhaps fatally. Should we do that? There are countless steps we could take as a society to incrementally increase the physical safety of our children, and citizens in general. That doesn't by itself demand we take those steps.

Lawmakers should reject this plan. It's not about the children.

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