A sign on the side of a Providence school bus warns motorists that new surveillance cameras are in use.

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

Until recently, it was all but impossible to catch a driver who put children at risk by passing a stopped school bus. In 2007, police across Rhode Island issued just 128 citations to drivers for passing stopped buses; 97 were found guilty.

But last year, the General Assembly passed a law letting school systems hire a company to mount surveillance cameras on buses, a way of catching drivers in the act.

Now, with only a handful of buses in Providence and Johnston equipped with the cameras, the number of citations has soared.

In just the five months since Providence-based Smart Bus Live put cameras on the outside of four buses in Johnston, the police issued 108 citations, up from only 2 in all of 2007. In Providence, there were 9 citations in 2007; this year, with the number of buses equipped with surveillance cameras growing from 2 in January to 10 today, the cameras had uncovered 591 violations as of the end of May.

“I didn’t think there would be so many who would do something as egregious as pass a school bus, especially when the stop sign is out and the lights are flashing,” said Alfred A. Cardi, of Cranston, the owner of Smart Bus Live. “But it’s really an epidemic.”

Cardi was a self-employed financial services consultant in Cranston when a friend told him about a Louisiana firm that had installed cameras on buses in a school district there. He acquired the rights to the patented technology so he could market the concept here.

But the system was so new that neither he nor local school systems could do anything without getting enabling legislation from the General Assembly to let them use the digital wireless devices as the basis for issuing tickets. They also needed a new way of sharing revenue from fines. Under the old system, courts could impose a fine of “up to $300” that would be split between the municipality and the state. The new law makes the $300 fine mandatory and dictates that 75 percent of the revenue go to the video company, with the remaining 25 percent shared equally by the municipality and the state.

Johnston was the first in the state to put cameras on some of its bus routes, beginning in late November, on some of its most heavily traveled roads — Killingly and Plainfield streets, Hartford and Greenville avenues and Memorial Drive. About six weeks later, on Jan. 12, Providence got into the act.

Given that the cameras are provided free to the municipalities, with Smart Bus Live picking up the tab with revenue from the fines, everyone involved says they see the system as a win: there’s new revenue for municipalities and the company, and a new way to catch violators.

Johnston police Maj. Ralph Bubar III says the cameras have given the department another set of eyes. Before, he says, it was next to impossible to prosecute a violator because so much depended on the bus driver’s being able to see and then remember the license number whizzing by at the same time driver was discharging passengers. Now, he says, the police have the benefit of being able to review a video from several different angles and decide whether it warrants a citation.

“We have had a few people try to dispute it,” Bubar said. “But once they see the evidence, they usually concede defeat and pay the fine.”

And there’s an added incentive in the law that makes it even more worthwhile for the car’s registered owner to settle and pay. If the owner willingly pays the $300 fine, it does not go on the owner’s driving record because the video gives no indication of who was behind the wheel. But if the owner fights and is found guilty, the violation will go on his or her permanent driving record as a moving violation. It will also cost more, because the driver would be liable for court costs of $35, and increased fines of up to $500 if it is not the first offense.

According to Cardi and his business director, Thomas O’Connor, the heart of the system is an array of seven video cameras on each bus, transmitting live images back to the company’s headquarters above the U.S. Homeland Security offices at 49 Pavilion Ave. in Providence.

Three of those cameras are in a box near the front of the bus; two provide views of the oncoming lanes of traffic, and one provides an 180-degree shot showing the side of the bus. Four cameras in the rear offer views of lanes behind, including any cars that may be approaching or passing from the rear.

The live feeds — one camera angle at a time from each bus — are viewed, as they happen, by three Smart Bus Live employees who electronically tag any evidence of a violation.

In the case of Johnston, those tagged images are then electronically sent to the Police Department’s traffic division, where Lt. Daniel Parrillo and Sgt. Marc Boisvert review the images to see if a citation is warranted. Boisvert says that out of an abundance of fairness, they don’t cite a driver already at or near a bus when the bus stops, but only those who pass after some time has elapsed.

“It’s amazing,” Boisvert says, “how many cars will pass seven seconds after the lights have started flashing.”

In Providence’s case, officers from the police traffic division go to Smart Bus Live offices on Pavilion Street and conduct reviews there

No records are available as to how many citations have been dismissed, but officers say they are few. Johnston’s Boisvert said that since the program went into effect he and Lieutenant Parrillo have been subpoenaed eight times to be witnesses before the state Traffic Tribunal, but in each instance the trial never went forward. He says he isn’t aware of a single instance when a citation has been overturned.

Cardi, the Smart Bus Live owner, says he can’t estimate how many buses in Rhode Island will be equipped with the surveillance cameras a year from now. He says it is a gradual process that depends on how many cameras the company can buy with the money generated from the fines — an estimated $157,000 so far, based on the company’s share of 699 fines.

“We really see this as a deterrent, because the more drivers know they could get caught passing a school bus, the less likely they will do it,” Cardi said. “Our aim is child safety.”Rules of the road

If red lights are flashing on a school bus, the law requires that motorists approaching from either direction come to a full stop and remain stopped until the bus’ red lights no longer flash. This applies not only to public highways but private roads and parking lots. Motorists don’t have to stop if they are driving in the opposite direction of the bus on a highway where the lanes are separated by guardrail, Jersey barrier, grass or trees.

Failing to stop is considered a moving violation, with a fine of up to $300 and or a suspension of one’s driver’s license for up to 30 days for the first violation. If the citation results from live video surveillance, the citation carries a mandatory $300 fine but is not deemed to be a moving violation that goes on one’s driving record.

rdujardi@projo.com