Ohio lawmakers are trying to increase penalties on illegally passing a stopped school bus
School buses. (File photo from Sandusky City Schools website.)
A pair of bills in the Ohio General Assembly have been proposed by lawmakers to try to curb the number of people who illegally pass a stopped school bus.
Ohio Senate Bill 62, introduced by Sen. Theresa Gavarone, R-Bowling Green, would authorize — but stops shy of mandating — the use of school bus camera equipment. Ohio's law currently neither specifically authorizes nor prohibits the use of cameras on a school bus.
'The goal of this legislation is to deter those from putting our children at risk through the reckless action of passing a stopped school bus,' Gavarone said Wednesday in her testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee. 'At the end of the day, making the decision to pass a stopped school bus illegally is selfish and dangerous.'
Ohio House Bill 3 goes a step further by making passing a school bus a misdemeanor with a fine that would range from $250 to $1,000. Repeated offenses could lead to a license suspension, a required safety course and a $2,000 fine. The current penalty for illegally passing a stopped school bus in Ohio is between $0-$500.
Ohio state Reps. Cecil Thomas, D-Cincinnati, and Bernie Willis, R-Springfield, introduced the bill, which has yet to have a hearing in the House Transportation Committee, but Willis is the chair of that committee.
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Both bills would authorize the use of school bus cameras and create the School Bus Safety Fund in the state treasury.
S.B. 62 creates a $300 civil penalty for drivers who pass a stopped school bus illegally. Fifty dollars would go to the School Bus Safety Fund in the state treasury. The remaining $250 would go to the school districts to purchase and maintain cameras for the school buses, although the bill does not require buses to have cameras. It's up to the school districts to decide if they want cameras on buses for all their routes.
'The idea is that the ones who will be funding this will be those who decide to take the reckless action of illegally passing a stopped school bus,' Gavarone said. 'No parent should ever have to worry about their child traveling to and from school.'
The Ohio State Highway Patrol issued more than 16,000 citations for passing stopped school buses from 2018 to August 2023, Gavarone said in her testimony.
'That is more than 16,000 times a child's life was placed in danger due to the reckless action of a driver,' she said. 'I would emphasize that this is just citations issued, the number of people who have taken the action of passing a school bus illegally is much higher as it is often difficult to identify the driver or get a clean read of the license plate.'
Twenty-eight states — including Florida, Pennsylvania and Tennessee — have passed similar legislation, Gavarone said.
The Ohio School Bus Safety Working Group issued 17 recommendations about a year ago, but requiring seat belts on buses was not one of them. Neither of these bills require seat belts on school buses. Seat belts are optional on large school buses weighing more than 10,000 pounds.
Only eight states require seat belts on school buses: New York, New Jersey, Arkansas, California, Florida, Louisiana, Nevada, and Texas.
Follow Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky.
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