Bus Safety: A matter for the school district or the township? Upper Dublin Commissioners debate the hot button issue

We’ve all seen it. Busy morning and afternoon commute hours can wreak havoc on area traffic. And impatient drivers always seem to abound. While at times their antics are a pet peeve, there are some instances in which such irresponsible drivers can be a danger to themselves and others.

Fetrah Sheedy, a woman who works in but does not live in the Upper Dublin Township, spoke on the mater during the Tuesday, Oct. 8 meeting of the Board of Commissioners.

“Unfortunately, the life of our kids is not safe and not secure in this district,” said Sheedy. “A couple of weeks ago, I started my training with the [school] district.”

She said she has witnessed, in her new role, many passing school buses and designated stop-arm red lights.
“This situation puts students at risk in this township,” she said. “Drivers are driving so fast, nobody can write a report or take any picture either.”

Sheedy said that she’s spoken with other district authorities, and even the Upper Dublin Township Police Chief Francis X. Wheatley but has not found resolution to the issue. She alleged that, despite spending the past four to five years and a “couple of hundred thousand dollars” the fast drivers endangering students remain. Sheedy said this matter deserves “immediate help for the children.”

“We need to have a quick action before anything happens to any of the kids,” said Sheedy to the commissioners. She asked that teamwork between the schools, parents, police, and township come together to face the on-going problem.

Upon researching other districts’ solutions, Sheedy mentioned that a “Bus Patrol” has been put into place in other areas. As previously reported by Wissahickon Now, Wissahickon’s School District already has such a program underway in its district.

Working in conjunction with the public, the district, and police departments in all three municipalities, Lower Gwynedd, Whitpain, and Ambler, the program involves an organization called Bus Patrol that utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to detect and capture images of violators to pay, via citations, for the program itself.

Sheedy said that the Upper Dublin School District operates with 45 bus drivers. She said that the program, allegedly free to the district, would involve the installation of electronic cameras and technology that would then assist in detecting the violations, issuing the citations, and working to gather funds, which it then takes a percent of prior to divvying up the profits between schools, municipalities, and police departments.

“I get the potential problem,” said Ira S. Tackel, the Ward 4 Commissioner and Board President of the Upper Dublin Township Board of Commissioners. “But with all due respect, I’m going to guess and say that Upper Dublin, and the problem that you are alluding to, is no different than any other township around us. And the drivers who are not paying attention in those townships, as they are perhaps not in Upper Dublin.”

“I’m not looking for other townships,” said Sheedy. “I’m looking [out for] these kids.”

Township Manager Kurt Ferguson attempted to clarify any confusion for the commissioners.

“There is technology out there that would put certain types of cameras on buses that would have car readers on them,” said Ferguson. “We’ve been in discussions with Dr. [Steven M.] Yanni, when he was here, and now with Dr. [Laurie] Smith, and there are details to be worked out with that. I don’t think the police chief, or I, disagree with the point.”

However, Ferguson noted that the application of such a program would likely require the addition of a designated police office to handle the citations and program, meaning a new hire, or more, for the Upper Dublin Township’s Police Department, calling the sifting of videos and issuing of citations “very labor intensive.”

“In the end, respectfully, part of the discussions in the past have been, and I’m not talking about safety so bear with me, the township bears all of the staffing costs to do this, and the police department does not get money back,” said Ferguson, disagreeing with Sheedy’s claim that it would.

Ferguson said, to his understanding, the funds go directly to the school district, and not to help cover the costs in the township. He said discussions have included a new “safety person over there” with the district, deciding if that person may be able to handle some of the workload.

“Those discussions are still on going, but it is a little more complicated to be able to pull that off,” said Ferguson.

Tackel said that the incidents are “episodic and identifiable by time,” which should lessen the load of work.

“It’s not like you’re looking at eight hours’ worth of video looking for the event,” he said. “You know when it happened.” He added that the cost involved, namely the infrastructure and equipment necessary to host the Bus Patrol Program, would be a burden that the Upper Dublin School District would have to manage.

While costs could be discussed, Ferguson reiterated that it is the administrative workload, including writing the citations, sending them, and following up for payments, would fall on the township’s budget, as it is the oversight for the Upper Dublin Police Department. He added that the Bus Patrol program (or those like it) is part of a larger school transportation safety discussion which includes topics such as crossing guards at Fort Washington Elementary School, areas of high-traffic walking students, and the possibility of adding manual stop lights controlled at school commuting peak times.

“We are looking at these safety issues,” said Ferguson. “That discussion [about Bus Patrol] is not something that is over, but we [still] have to work out, how that could be done.”

Tackel argued that the district would have the brunt of the responsibility to review tapes and only pass citation-worthy cases onto the township’s police.

“I really think that, not that your comments are falling on deaf ears to the board, but you need to address your concerns that you have, first and foremost, to the school district,” said Tackel to Sheedy.

“I did,” Sheedy responded. “They said they cannot do it without the police department.”

“We’re not going to solve it over them,” said Tackel in response.

Sheedy then asked if Tackel or any member of the board wants to see a child killed, to which Tackel said that did not even deserve an answer.

“Of course not,” Sheedy said answering her own query. “But there is supposed to be action.”

“All of these things, do unfortunately, cost money,” said Tackel. “And there are certain jurisdictions of responsibility. The first level of responsibility, no matter how you slice and dice this, is the school district, not the township.”

Ferguson said, no matter the responsibility, there is an “active, collaborative, ongoing” relationship between the school district and the township.

“[That relationship] is leaps and bounds beyond what it was previously, as I’ve reported,” he said. “We are in the midst and have had various discussions [on the matter] just like we are now.”

While Ferguson said he did agree the start might need to come from the schools, it was not a topic the township would ignore.

“Those conversations, regarding all of those safety issues, while I do agree fall oftentimes more to the school district than us, we are participating in trying to find ways to accomplish all of those things, within reason,” said Ferguson. “Right now, the idea of me taking three police officers out of five that I have patrolling the town, to watch video cameras, and I want safety too, I can’t do that.”

Meredith L. Ferleger, Ward 2 Commissioner and Board Vice President, said there may be more immediate ways to address the issue.

“Putting the technology aside, I’ve lived in this township basically my entire life,” said Ferleger. “I could map out every single road in my head. And I know with certainty this issue is only happening on certain roads, where there is even a possibility of a driver being able to get around a bus.”

If the locations could be fairly pin-pointed, Ferleger argued that “that is something where the police department could take immediate action.”

While Ferleger said she realized drivers may not be able to get a tag number or report each violation, the frequently used areas could be patrolled by the police.

“The police department can sent out a patrol car, every single morning, to sit there and watch this, so you as a driver, or any other driver in this township, you’re not having the responsibility of trying to monitor this,” said Ferleger. Knowing the areas of the repeating problem, Ferleger suggested increased police presence would possibly deter the issue.

“They can try to address that,” she said of the township’s police. She added that drivers may be able to narrow down the areas of highest concern.

“We do that now,” explained Ferguson. “We are actively, and the chief is actively, out there positioning officers in areas where we’ve had reports.” The manager added there are also multiple meetings a month between the township, police, and schools to address such topics, and that frequently seen violations should be reported at that time, as well.

“The chief will absolutely, and is able to, sit someone to deter that activity,” said Ferguson.