Baltimore County to start mailing $250 citations for school bus violations on Nov. 4

Driving past the flashing red lights of a stopped school bus will draw a $250 fine in Baltimore County starting Nov. 4.

Baltimore County Police installed four cameras on every bus in the district to take videos of infractions and pictures of license plates, the department said. A third-party vendor AngelTrax, a transit and vehicle surveillance company, will verify citations before they are approved by a police department employee, the department said.

Citations will be mailed to the registered owner of the vehicle 10 days after the incident, and no license points will be deducted, the department said. Around 80,000 students are transported by bus in the county.

Maryland law requires drivers from both directions to stop at least 20 feet from a school bus that is stopped with red lights flashing. If a physical barrier is present, such as a median, only traffic traveling in the same direction as the bus must stop until lights are deactivated.

The department launched the program on the first day of school in August and sent more than 800 warning notices for violations in the first 11 days. Anne Arundel and Montgomery counties installed similar cameras on school buses to capture violators.