Currently, none of the school buses in Effingham county has a camera that can catch the license plate of a car.
I know because I drive a bus and part of my route is on Ga. 21 in Rincon.
I had sheriff’s deputies ride with me at the first of the year and it has helped some.
Traffic headed the opposite direction now stops more than it used to, but usually three to four times a week, someone goes right through the deployed stop sign in the left lane.
Right now, we’ve been told there is no funding for the cameras or several of us would have them installed on our buses.
I do appreciate you bringing this to the attention of the county through your paper.
I had a person on southbound Ga. 21 go right through my stop sign just this morning. I saw them in my side-view mirror and they had plenty of warning and time to stop. They drove on through as I was loading a middle school child.
If we had cameras, it would help. It would also help if the local police would enforce the state law. Apparently, some of our local departments think that Ga. 21 is a divided highway.
It is in certain parts, where it has an actual grass or concrete median, it is divided and oncoming cars do not have to stop. Where it is divided by a turn lane, no physical barrier, oncoming traffic must stop! This is a state law.
Thank you again for your attention to this very important matter.
BARBARA PABST
Guyton
EDITOR’S NOTE:
Cameras on Effingham school buses have been delayed because lawyers for the company that provides the cameras, Xerox, asked for some changes in the contract, according to Slade Helmly, executive director of administrative services for the school district. He hopes an agreement still can be worked out. The school board would have to approve the new version of the contract before the cameras could be installed, he said.