Shocking new video shows students in Peabody, Massachusetts, crossing a street to get onto their bus -- just seconds before a car whizzes by, ignoring the flashing school bus stop sign.
City officials held a news conference Monday, saying this incident is just one of thousands of these types of violations that they caught on camera since the start of the school year.
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“We had some near misses, some very serious misses that really concerned all of us,” Peabody Mayor Ted Bettencourt said.
Cameras were put on 10 buses in the school district for a pilot program, and about 3,500 violations were caught on camera from September to May.
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“The data is there. It’s a problem. We have to do something about it, and it’s time for our state legislators to make it happen and protect our community,” the mayor said.
City leaders are calling on state lawmakers to pass House Bill 4450, which would allow violators caught on school bus cameras to get a citation.
As the law stands now, police have to witness the violation in-person to write a ticket.
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Right now, the new school bus safety proposal is in committee, but officials on Monday said that state lawmakers could give it the green light within the next several weeks to become state law.
