Baltimore area school buses rack up nearly 1,000 speed camera tickets BALTIMORE - Automated speed cameras, installed near area schools three years ago with the goal of punishing dangerous drivers and making the streets safer for children, have caught hundreds of school buses speeding near the schools they serve, often with children aboard, a Baltimore Sun analysis has found. Privately owned buses have received at least 800 automated speed citations in Baltimore, while city-owned buses have accumulated more than 50, records show. And Baltimore County public school buses have triggered speed cameras more than 100 times over the past two years. The $40 tickets are issued only to vehicles recorded driving at least 12 mph over the speed limit. More than two dozen school buses were clocked 20 mph or more over the limit in the city, including one that hit 74 mph one afternoon in February on West Cold Spring Lane near the Poly-Western high school campus. Protecting schoolchildren was a key justification when the General Assembly voted in 2009 to allow speed cameras statewide. In addition to highway work zones, the devices are permitted in designated "school zones," defined in the law as being within a half-mile radius of a school. Baltimore City Council member Mary Pat Clarke (D) called the volume of school bus citations in the city "a very serious issue." Many students who ride school buses - as opposed to taking mass transit or other means - have special needs or are in elementary school, which Clarke said heightens her concern. "If we don't do something about the companies and the drivers picking up these tickets, we're not helping to prevent accidents," said Clarke, who chairs the council's education committee. There will be accidents if these habits are not turned around. Officials at the city and the county school systems say it is unacceptable for buses to speed. Both districts say they require their drivers - not taxpayers - to pay the citations, and ticketed drivers face a graduated series of disciplinary measures. But the city school system's records show that officials have an uncertain grasp on the issue. For example, a Jeep Liberty registered to the city schools" police program has accumulated 28 speed camera tickets in the city and Baltimore County, records show. Yet the school system said this week it has a record of just 15. City school officials also acknowledge they have no way of knowing how many privately owned buses have gotten tickets while carrying public school students, because the companies are no required to notify the district when their buses receive citations. Using partial speed camera data provided by City Hall, the Sun identified 122 citations that were issued to privately owned buses that have each gotten five or more tickets. School district officials checked their records and found that 96 of the violations occurred with children on board. Barber Transportation's buses got 24 of those tickets. Company spokeswoman Veronica Robinson expressed surprise at the numbers, saying Barber monitors tickets its drivers receive. "Anything that goes beyond two, they're reprimanded and they lose their [bus] run," she said. The most that any driver has gotten was four, she said, and "he's no longer working here."