Maryland Police Invest $600,000
to Catch Stop Arm Violators

The impatient driver that tears around a stopped school bus, ignoring the extended stop arm, flashing ambers and, by all appearances, common sense, may be the nightmare that keeps bus drivers and transportation directors up at night. This year Maryland will spend $600,000 on police officers’ overtime so they can catch these criminals and issue $570 fines.

James Doolan has spent his 20 years as the director of transportation services at Caroll County Schools in northern Maryland working with the state attorney general. Since the grants were established in 2000, he meets with the police department several times a year to determine where local police should put extra officers to keep his 27,000 students safe during their bus rides to and from school.

“It has been extremely helpful resulting in arrests going up all over the state,” said Doolan.

After hearing about several near-fatal passing accidents seven years ago, state Rep. John F. Wood introduced a bill to establish $600,000 in annual grant funding to help stop passing violations. Under HB 104, the state police would be able to give local departments, sheriffs departments and state police barracks up to $35,000 per year to pay officers for overtime hours spent catching those who pass school buses.

To apply for the grants, local police report the number of violations from the prior year, the number of schools and their population, and their specific goals. A selection committee made up of police officers and members of both the state pupil transportation board and board of education determines how much each applicant receives.

In Washington County, 70 miles east of Caroll County, Lt. Travis Ruppert has been using grant funding the last three years to have officers follow school buses near hot spots known for violations.

He still remembers a frightening incident several years ago. A young boy was unloading from a bus that had turned on its ambers when a driver pulled around the bus and onto the right shoulder. Luckily, the driver reached down, grabbed the boy by his sweatshirt and yanked him up the stairs as the car zoomed passed. Unluckily for the driver, a sheriff’s deputy was right behind the bus.

“Needless to say, the driver received a citation,” Ruppert said.

Barb Scotto, transportation director for Washington County Public Schools, is proud of the work Lt. Ruppert and police across the state have done over the years.

“They’re doing a great job,” she added, “They want to do all that they can do to stop these violators.”