I am asking the Crestwood School District officials, school board members and local municipal leaders to please take action.
You should be repealing the stop-arm camera ordinances, resolutions and municipal agreements. The state should also repeal the entire law, which is Act 19 of 2023. Over the past few months, TV station WPXI in Pittsburgh has been running many investigative stories on stop-arm cameras. It will continue to add more stories as needed. These come from Rick Earle and Amy Hudak. Stop-arm cameras are supposedly to keep people from illegally passing school buses. There is much more to this though.
Reports have many people claiming that tickets were issued in error for various reasons. People even reported the school bus drivers waving car drivers around the buses, but tickets were still issued. District judges were dismissing almost all of the tickets, when people went to court too. That alone should signal something needs to be addressed.
People were due refunds for exorbitant filing fees, but had a hard time getting them. The massive amount of money being made from the tickets was also looked into. The stories spoke to judges, lawyers, people who got the tickets, etc. Stories were very balanced. The other side was also allowed to talk, but had few compelling things to say to defend all this.
These are not typical tickets, and people were limited in what they could present to a district judge. Now, the district judges were removed in lieu of hearing officers, which was poorly defined. So you have no real right to defend yourself. The state set the law up so if you appeal, you will be found responsible. Why not allow for real trials where you can say and present anything you like? Why shield pertinent info from the public too?
When this started, we were told there was a crisis of carnage due to people illegally passing school buses. That was inaccurate. We were told that numerous safeguards were in place to ensure that everything was properly setup, calibrated, multiple reviews would occur, etc. If that happened, then why did all these supposedly erroneous tickets go out? This is so bad that one reporter asked Gov. Josh Shapiro if the entire stop-arm camera law should be repealed.
Things like this are not rare. The state saw many errors with speed cameras and red-light cameras. There were other issues too, like crashes going up in some locations.
Nobody wants people illegally passing school buses, but the engineering, enforcement and appeal processes must be fair. Intentional illegal bus passing is rare.
On a road like SR 309 in Mountain Top, it is unfair to issue tickets. People may not see a bus, many not know if they must stop, and may not be able to safely stop. The flashing yellow will likely be too short too. A road like that needs a longer yellow. PA law is different from other states too.
When all of this started a few years ago, I saw that Crestwood enacted the cameras. Never saw any mention of this before the vote, so too late to take action. I did see a few municipalities talking about it later since they needed to pass agreements, but I did not find information about some in advance of votes. Too late to act again.
If a municipality does not have a website, where does it post a meeting agenda? Why are there no websites for all levels of government? How does this comply with the Sunshine Act and giving notice of upcoming meeting agendas? Why was all of this not put into the media so residents could talk about it? Even if a website exists showing an agenda, minutes, etc., it needs to list things like email contact info, so you can speak up.
If this were truly about safety, then schools would do things to stop illegal passing. One school in Pennsylvania is testing a four-foot strip with bright red LED lights that comes out when the bus is stopped, in order to block the next lane. The company said it prevents up to 95% of illegal passes. You have to stop, or your car will hit the device. These devices would cost money, not bring in money, like the cameras do.
Time to do the right thing. End stop-arm cameras in Pennsylvania, along with ALL other types of automated enforcement. You need not believe anything I say, pull up the WPXI stories for yourself, then take a few hours to read it all and watch the videos. You will be amazed.
More stories will likely keep coming out, so check often.
James Sikorski Jr.
Wapwallopen
