Crime scene tape cordons off a school bus as police officers from the Indiana State Police, Bartholomew County Sheriffճ Department and Columbus Police Department investigate a hit and run involving a student and a vehicle at a bus stop on South Gladstone Avenue in Columbus, Ind., Monday, Aug. 30, 2021. Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. will spend $300,000 on upgrades to school bus camera systems, with the aim of deterring and enforcing stop arm violations.
The school board voted Monday night to approve an additional appropriation to add the cameras. Director of Operations Brett Boezeman has described the appropriation as a “cash drawdown” from BCSC’s operations budget to help pay for the project.
Twelve out of BCSC’s 120 school buses already have stop arm cameras. Boezeman said at an previous meeting that the school corporation hopes to make it a full 120 by Aug. 1, with the retrofit taking about six to eight months.
The project also entails other upgrades for buses as needed, including higher video quality and installation of dash cameras. The total cost of the stop arm additions and system upgrades is about $300,000.
The announcement of bus camera upgrades comes about five months after the death of 16-year-old Columbus East High School student Lily J. Streeval on Aug. 30.
Shiam Sunder Shankara Subramanian, 25, was arrested following Lily’s death. He is accused of attempting to drive around a stopped school bus with warning lights flashing and arm signal extended, court records state. The victim was struck as she was attempting to board the bus, according to court documents. Formal charges filed against the defendant include leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death or catastrophic injury, a Level 4 felony, and passing a school bus when arm signal is extended causing death, a Level 5 felony.
In Indiana, it is illegal for motorists to pass a bus that is stopped, with red lights flashing and the stop arm extended.
This applies on all roads, with the exception of highways divided by a barrier, such as a cable barrier, concrete wall or grassy median — drivers on those roads only have to stop if traveling in the same direction as the school bus.
BCSC officials recently attended a statehouse hearing to testify in favor of proposed Senate Bill 121. The legislation focuses on penalizing registered owners when their vehicle is used to commit a stop arm violation. Under the current draft of the bill, the owner would be guilty of a Class B infraction but would have a viable defense if the vehicle was stolen, routinely rented, provided to the owner’s employees for work purposes, or if the owner was out of state at the time of the infraction.
“We support this legislation and any other effort to increase the criminal consequences for disregarding a school bus stop arm,” Superintendent Jim Roberts told legislators. “We believe this bill adds to the message to all drivers in our state that a stop arm isn’t a suggestion, it is a necessary requirement, and that our families don’t deserve to carry the pain of a lost child.”
