BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The City of Buffalo and Buffalo Public Schools have partnered with "Bus Patrol America" to hold drivers accountable when passing a school bus with stop lights flashing and arms extended.
Hundreds of buses in Buffalo will soon have stop-arm artificial intelligence cameras installed.
Takara Owens is a parent of three kids who go to Buffalo schools.
She says she’s glad that the installation of the cameras is happening.
“I've seen kids that almost got hit... I've seen it happen,” Owens says. “This will be safe for the kids because they know that the cameras are there, they're going to get fined, they're going to get your license plate number and all that.”
7 News reporter Yoselin Person spoke with Bus Patrol America which has partnered with many cities like Buffalo across the country to make technology available for school buses.
“Install our stop cameras on each and every one of those buses,” says Steve Randazzo, Chief Growth Officer of Bus Patrol America. “And then we'll be working with the city to be able to train them up on how to use the software.”
Software like artificial intelligence named “Ava” will be installed on more than 600 school buses.
“Ava is able to intelligently scan up to eight lanes of traffic to be able to detect whether a vehicle has violated the state's vehicle and traffic law,” Randazzo says.
“Nice I can’t wait to see, that that’s gonna be real nice.”
Tierra Watson-Page has been a school bus driver for almost 16 years. She says she’s excited about the stop-arm cameras.
“And that’s one of our safety issues. Anyways, we're supposed to look what we call it five seconds ahead of us and that’ll give us the best count with the AI situation for us to be better at our job as well,” she says.
Bus Patrol America says the cameras will be up and running in a few months.
“Be safe because it's long overdue and y'all will be getting tickets now and it comes down to your license and your accountability at this point,” Watson-Page says.
