Drivers rack up $719K in fines for passing Duval school buses

More than 3,000 Duval County drivers were fined last month for illegally passing a school bus, the result of new cameras installed on buses.

The Duval County School District Police Department issued 3,197 citations in May at $225 each, totaling roughly $719,000 in fines issued in a single month. May was the first month drivers received fines under the new program.

Cameras mounted on Duval County school buses use artificial intelligence to flag drivers who pass a bus with its stop arm extended and red lights flashing.

Each video clip is reviewed by an officer before a ticket is mailed.The district says more than 800 citations were denied last month after that review process.

The violations span roads across Duval County. The top four areas for citations were:

• U.S. 90: 32
• Blanding Boulevard: 89
• Merrill Road: 35
• West Beaver Street: 33

The majority of violations were issued to drivers traveling in the opposite direction of the stopped bus.

School bus law

Under Florida law, drivers must stop for a school bus with its stop arm extended, regardless of direction — with limited exceptions.

The only exception is if there is a raised median between the driver and the bus or if the median is more than 5 feet wide.

Chief Jackson Short with the Duval County School Board Police Department says the cameras and citations are designed to make students safer — and early data from the company behind the technology suggests the approach works.

“So we can say this particular company is all across the country — BusPatrol — and what they have found with their data across the country is that 90 to 95% of drivers do not get a second ticket,” Short said. “So that’s why we think the program is successful, because drivers do not repeat the violation, they do not reoffend.”

Short acknowledged that it is too early to draw conclusions about Jacksonville specifically.

“Here in Jacksonville, it’s too early to say how effective the program is going to be,” he said. “For the month of May, I can tell you we saw about 4,000 drivers that violated the stop arm — and that was only with 95% of our buses equipped.”

Short says the full picture will emerge when students return in the fall.

“So the true numbers will come when we come back to school in the fall — August, September, October — when all of our buses are equipped, all the buses are on the road and all the students are in session,” he said. “This fall will be our opportunity to really look at the numbers and see what we can do to improve student safety.”

Not everyone who received a citation is accepting it.

Jerry Wilkes, 79, is contesting his $225 fine. He insists the only bus he passed was parked on private property — not on a public road.

“This is another gimmick,” Wilkes said. “I was doing nothing illegal. Nothing. If that bus had been in the roadway, like the statute says it ought to have been, I would have stopped.”

Wilkes says he is requesting all photos and video taken of the incident and has not yet heard back from the district.

“They haven’t even responded to me yet, so I don’t know what they’re going to do,” he said.

Short says Wilkes has every right to contest the citation. Instructions for doing so are listed on the citation itself. Drivers who still disagree after that process can contact Duval County School Board Police directly.

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This story was produced by News4Jax, a Jacksonville Today news partner.