In late August, several news stories detailed how local school districts are taking the offensive to protect
children from area drivers!
One doesn’t have to have children to be alarmed by the 2011 Maryland
state-wide study finding thousands of drivers passed stopped school
buses. It was no earth-shattering surprise to me the worst child-endangerment offenders were in Montgomery
County.
The good news is several schools districts began taking
counter-offensive measures by installing school bus cameras. The goal is to catch violators in the
act and report them to police to impose fines. The underlying supposition is these fines will
literally stop violators in their tracks.
The bad news is, after 20 years of navigating
the area’s highways and byways, I can easily see 99% of the violators doing the opposite.
The
behavioral question is: what is different about these fines? Will they really make
violators wait their turn? Or, will violators react like impatient, spiteful children and do it
all the more?
I think you can guess my predication.
Submitted to The Washington Examiner on September 13, 2012 but not published.
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