Face the Facts: Bill aims to increase penalties for reckless school bus drivers

More than 10,000 people have blown past a stopped school bus in the city of Bridgeport in just a six-month period recently.

With kids' lives at stake, how can this be stopped?

State Senator Herron Keyon Gaston, (D-Bridgeport) deputy majority leader and chair of the Public Safety Committee, is here to discuss.

Mike Hydeck: So first question, when you saw the report, 10,000 passing school buses. Was that a surprise? Or is that something you saw on the streets yourself?

Herron Keyon Gaston: That was just totally astonishing. I mean, I was totally floored to learn of the impressive numbers of 10,000 folks passing school buses. But also, I've been an eyewitness to seeing cars go past school buses here in Bridgeport, but also outside of our city limits. And I was just totally shocked at the numbers that was revealed through the data.

Mike Hydeck: To your knowledge, in those 10,000, because there's video evidence of many of them, was anyone hurt or killed in those instances? And how do we try to combat this?

Herron Keyon Gaston: Blessedly, no one was seriously injured or killed. However, it did create a lot of hysteria in a lot of folks who were crossing the streets, especially some of our parents, some of our young people who were sort of traumatized from seeing the cars just fly by with no regard to human life, no regard to our precious young people, who are precious cargo in our communities. So I was just appalled that this is happening. But more importantly, I'm happy that no one was seriously injured or hurt. However, I've spoken to other towns and other mayors of municipalities outside of Bridgeport. And they indicated to me that they've had some very close fatalities within those municipalities with respect to young people and people flying through buses. So we think that even one critical incident is one incident too many.

Mike Hydeck: So how does a bill that you're talking about trying to curb drivers from blowing past school buses? Goodness, if they're bright yellow, they have a red stop sign that flips out, and there are flashing lights, what else can we do?

Herron Keyon Gaston: Well, first of all, I want to just reiterate as the Chair of Public Safety, that public safety is our top priority within the state of Connecticut. And we want to ensure that folks who are driving understand that driving is a privilege. It's not a right. And that privilege could be revoked if you cannot abide by the rules of the road. And so that's our first mission and first statement that I want to make with respect to public safety. Also, you know, I think that people should be held accountable for violating these rules. But what this bill actually is going to do, is it's going to lower the fine to $250 to basically align with other states, such as New York and Massachusetts. But those fines will steadily increase the more individuals engage in this kind of conduct. So we're hoping that with the $250 fine, and the prevailing fees that will continue to happen if a person continue to go through the lights of the school buses, that will serve as a major deterrent across our state.

Mike Hydeck: Are there any discussions about maybe improving the equipment? This may sound silly, but make the stop sign on the side of the bus bigger or an arm swing out? Are there other things that have to do with possible equipment upgrades? And could you get transportation money from the federal government to help pay for some of this?

Herron Keyon Gaston: It's actually a great question. So right now, what we want to do is we want to create a local process for municipalities to basically administer these violations, very similar to a parking authority. And one of the reasons that we want to do this is because we think that if the municipality is able to recoup funding, then we could actually utilize that revenue to invest in better smart technology, camera equipment, to bring us even closer into the 21st century, and making sure that we're putting measures in place to deter individuals from being able to go past these school buses and to also utilize that money for other public safety initiatives that may be necessary and needed to increase public safety in those respective localities. So for example, that funding could be used in tandem with the school board but also with the police department, and perhaps utilizing some of that funding to put more police detail in certain areas that they may need to be in, especially if there's a huge shortage of officers being able to kind of be in a specific location, trying to identify folks who are going past school buses and using that money in a way to increase efficiency, but to also increase public safety with various measures that that local process might deem credible and necessary for the safety of of residents.

Mike Hydeck: Got about 30 seconds. Have you gotten any feedback from your Republican colleagues on this?

Herron Keyon Gaston: I've spoken very much so across the aisle on this. I think we're gonna get a lot of bipartisan support on it. I've spoken to several police officers who are part of the Public Safety Committee, and they are unequivocally on board, and certainly found this process to be very much appealing, with respect to giving more local control to the municipalities to administer these fines and fees. And they were even more excited about the fact that these resources will stay in the community to increase public safety and to be used for public safety measures for that local municipality. So I feel very good that this will come out of Public Safety favorable with bipartisan support. And I believe that when it gets to the floor, that we're going to vote on this because it's about protecting the safety of our young people, our precious cargo, and we want to ensure that our young people know that we have their back. And we want parents to know that as well.