
Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The school bus arm cameras program is well-underway in the City of Buffalo, as the period of enforcement has been ongoing for more than seven weeks after a brief grace period over the summer.
Since Oct. 1, the City of Buffalo's Traffic Violations Agency has received more than 16,000 events that were captured by the monitoring program on buses across the city.
Octavio Villegas, executive director of Buffalo's Traffic Violations Agency, hopes that these violations captured and issued to residents will reduce the numbers of events happening every day by reaching out and educating people.
"BusPatrol, which is our partner in this initiative, has installed the technology that will capture vehicles passing school buses. When that event is captured, BusPatrol does screen all events and provide those evidence packages to the City of Buffalo for approval. Our department then will review those matters, and when those events that are captured are approved, a notice of liability is then issued to the registered owner of the vehicle. That is also provided by BusPatrol," explained Villegas in an interview with WBEN. "On that notice of liability, there is information and resources on both the front and the back. On the back of the notice of liability, there are options that can share on how to pay, how to review the video and images that were captured."
There is also information on the notice of liability for folks that are interested in contesting their matter to BusPatrol and the city.
"There is a section that they could complete, return to BusPatrol, and then BusPatrol would inform us of those contestations. We would then create a court docket, we'll send out notices at least 30 days before those hearing dates, and that way folks can come in and contest, if they wish to contest," Villegas explained.
For anyone that would like to contest their notice of liability, but somehow do not receive a response from BusPatrol, Villegas says residents could always reach out to the City of Buffalo, where they can also let BusPatrol know of an individual contesting an offense.
"As long as there's a citation number, a license plate that we can forward and request from them, we could also give them that opportunity," Villegas noted. "I know that BusPatrol might have some automated dates, so I think if folks did not contest before their due date, I will let anyone really know they can also reach out to us at the Buffalo Traffic Violation Agency so we can get that filed, if they would like to have it reviewed by one of our judges."
According to Villegas, there are a couple of review processes that take place when evaluating the events captured by the school bus arm cameras, looking into whether a local driver was, in fact, in violation of the law.
"We do have retired NYPD on the BusPatrol side, as part of their team of reviewers," Villegas explained. "Once evidence is captured, they would also forward it to the city for approval, and then that way, as our reviewers and our department - the Buffalo Traffic Violation Agency that was designated for this program - then goes through to review the matters that were captured. If they are in violation of the section of the vehicle and traffic law 1174-a, passing a school bus while stopped in the process of picking up students, then that would be approved, and the registrant of that vehicle will receive that notice in the mail."
For anyone that receives a notice of liability in the mail from BusPatrol and the City of Buffalo, Villegas encourages them to look at the information on the front and back of the notice to take advantage of the resources available.
"There is a website, www.alertbus.com, there is a phone number, 1-877-504-7080, on the back of the notice of liability. There is also a QR code that will help direct folks to the correct location, and there is also a mailing address for the school bus safety program that you can reach out to," he noted.
Anyone with further questions or concerns with a notice of liability can also reach out to the Buffalo Traffic Violation Agency at (716)-851-5883.