New Florida bill to add cameras to school buses

A new bill is moving through the Florida legislature to add cameras to school buses to catch drivers illegally passing them.

A state survey shows that one day in 2022, there were more than 800 instances of someone illegally passing school buses in Lee County. And in Collier County, that number was nearly 300. At the same time, the number in Charlotte County was 111.

Chances are you’ve seen a driver losing his or her patience and illegally zoom past a school bus at a stop.

“It’s been an ongoing problem,” Lee County schools’ spokesman, Rob Spicker, said.

Spicker told WINK News the district is all for state lawmakers to toughen the law to keep kids safe. And lawmakers are considering a bill that would do just that. The measure allows schools to install cameras on buses to record drivers illegally passing.

Sherry Stevens lost her 16-year-old son, Cameron Mayhew, in 2016 when a driver passed a parked school bus.

“It just takes a few of our house representatives to push forward and help fight for us,” Stevens said.

“I understand people want their privacy; I understand their fight… but at the end of the day, if it was their children out there… then they would understand,” Stevens said.

Florida’s Department of Education did a one-day survey in 2022 to determine how many drivers pass school buses illegally. Statewide, 7,687 drivers illegally pass school buses, 825 in Lee County, 295 in Collier County, and 111 in Charlotte County.

“It is a problem that we worry about every day,” Spicker said.

And if the bill becomes law, every one of those people who broke the law would be fined $225. Stevens told WINK News that it’s a start, but in her mind, still not enough.

“I don’t understand why there’s bigger penalty for the turtle eggs, I love the turtles, the sea turtles, than when you have the death of a child,” Stevens said.

Only a handful of state senators did not support the measure, Erin Grall, a Republican from Vero Beach, being one of them. Grall told WINK News in a statement she doesn’t like surveillance across our communities, extensive access tracking daily movements of all Floridians, and the lack of due process.