Traffic citations in school zones surge in Allegheny County

Allegheny County drivers seem to be in a rush — and they’re paying for it.

The county leads the state in the number of traffic citations issued for speeding in school zones and illegally passing school buses, according to data collected by magisterial district courts statewide.

Over the past five years, 18% of the 10,800 citations issued statewide for passing a school bus were from Allegheny County.

In 2018, 433 drivers were nabbed for trying to sneak past a bus that was stopped, with red lights flashing and an extended “stop” arm, to pick up or drop off students.

The violation could carry a fine of up to $250 plus court fees, five points on a driver’s record and a 60-day license suspension.

“We still seem to have a problem with drivers distracted,” said Mike Berk, executive director with the Pennsylvania School Bus Association. “Part of our concern is, we’ve got strobe lights, we’ve got much more efficient and noticeable lighting on buses — LED lighting and the stop arms — but we’re still fighting this problem of drivers driving right through them.”

Stop arms that swing out to signal that traffic should stop have become standard equipment on most school buses. A state law that went into effect this year allows school districts in Pennsylvania to work with bus companies to install cameras to catch drivers who attempt to pass a bus actively unloading or boarding students.

Representatives from two Western Pennsylvania bus companies, Sarver-based W.L. Roenigk, Inc. and ABC Transit, in Etna, said that they have not yet received any requests from local school districts to install stop arm cameras on their buses.

Cincinnati-based First Student, which contracts with several Western Pennsylvania school districts, has not replied to a request for comment.

At least 21 states, including Maryland, New York and West Virginia, have enacted similar laws since 2011, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, which tracks state laws across the country.

Many Pennsylvania drivers still seem undeterred, Berk said.

“Are people too busy looking at their phones, talking on their phones, not paying attention to what’s going on around them?” Berk said. “I don’t know how you miss a big yellow bus.”

Allegheny County is home to 42 suburban public school districts, plus the Pittsburgh Public Schools. Including public charter schools and technical schools, that’s a total of 299 elementary and secondary schools serving more than 145,000 public school students, according to 2018-19 school year data from the state Department of Education.

That doesn’t include the dozens of private and religious schools across the county.

Only Philadelphia County has more public schools, with a total of 315. Montgomery County, which also topped the list for school zone and school bus-related traffic citations, has 172 public schools.

“It’s no secret: Our officers follow the school bus,” said Ohio Township Police Chief Joseph Hanny.

His department covers Ohio Township, along with seven other municipalities northwest of Pittsburgh. The magisterial district court in Bellevue, which handles many of the traffic citations issued by Ohio Township police, led the county in the number of illegal school bus passing citations issued in 2018, with 77.

It also racked up the highest total citations issued from 2014 to 2018, with 354.

Fines collected from those citations are split between the state, county and municipality.

The department’s surveillance is driven by citizen complaints, Hanny said, and officers try to be as visible as possible along high-traffic corridors with bus stops.

That includes Route 65 in Ben Avon and Emsworth — an extremely busy roadway with bus stops on both sides — as well as Grand Avenue in Neville Township, a four-lane, residential road that serves local industry as well as drivers looking for a short-cut to beat highway traffic between Pittsburgh and the suburbs, he said.

Allegheny County also accounted for 18%, or roughly 3,600 , of the 20,000 citations issued statewide from 2014 to 2018 for speeding in a school zone. Allegheny County trailed Montgomery County, where a little more than 3,800 citations were issued during the same period.

Fines for exceeding the 15 mph school zone speed limit start at $35, plus court costs, and could reach $500 if a driver speeds more than 11 mph over the limit.

Many of those violations happen in the morning or evening, said West Deer Police Chief Jonathan Lape.

“That’s when they’re either going to work or coming home from work, or late to go somewhere,” Lape said. “People sometimes forget where they’re at and just tend to go a little faster than what they should.”

His department covers the Deer Lakes School District, which includes three school zones, two of which are located in high-traffic areas around the district’s high school and intermediate center buildings along East Union Road.

There were 57 school zone speeding citations filed with the local magisterial district court in West Deer in 2018, ranking third in the county that year for the greatest number of citations issued.

The Mt. Lebanon magisterial district court tallied over three times as many school zone speeding citations that year, with police handing out 189 citations to harried drivers.

While school pick-up and drop-off is typically “organized chaos,” Mt. Lebanon Police Chief Aaron Lauth said that many drivers are distracted and not paying attention to flashing school zone signs.

His department covers a sprawling suburban community that includes the 11 schools in the Mt. Lebanon School District, Keystone Oaks High School and Middle School, along with several religious schools.

“Unfortunately, sometimes we see, too, that not everybody we stop in a school zone for school zone infractions are just people passing through,” Lauth said. “Sometimes they’re parents, rushing to get their kids to school.”