KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Osceola County Public Schools leaders are taking high-tech steps to stop drivers from passing parked school buses that are loading or unloading students.

District transportation director Arby Creach says vehicles illegally passing stopped school buses has been a long-running problem in the county that is only getting worse every year. 

“The last time we counted, which was a couple of months ago, there were 756 violations in a single day,” said Creach.

The school district officials say they may spend $1 million installing outside vehicle cameras that record drivers that pass school busses while parked, and then ticket violators by mail. 

They are currently setting up a pilot program that includes buses running in Poinciana, Kissimmee and St. Cloud, that will test at the start of 2024.

If all goes as planned, district officials say the outside cameras will be operating on most buses by the summer of 2024.

Creach said the number of violators has grown steadily as the county gets bigger.

“As traffic density goes up, people are impatient, people are distracted, they don’t recognize what a school bus is, and the safety it represents,” said Creach.

He expects multiple camera systems that record when a driver passes a stopped school bus after the automated stop sign comes out to be installed on around 250 buses.

Osceola County is planning to install cameras on school buses that are designed to catch drivers moving past stopped buses illegally. (Spectrum News)

“Once that happens, it activates the camera, and any motion in this area between the stop arms will be picked up by the lateral cameras," Creach said. "And the overhead camera will also capture what we call an evidence package."

Proof of the violation will be set immediately via Wi-Fi from the bus to the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, which will then ticket violators through the mail.

“All the studies and statistics prove that the right side is much more lethal than the left side of the bus,” Creach said.

Violators will pay $200 for passing illegally on the driver’s side of the bus, and $400 for passing on the side where students exit the bus.

District officials say money collected from tickets will partially be used to fund the camera program, and some money will also be used to install seat belts in all the school buses.