Town of Cortlandt, Hendrick Hudson Team Up to Support Safe Streets Campaign
Lisa Anderson, a mother of five Hendrick Hudson students, has seen her share of scary moments while watching her children cross Watch Hill Road for the school bus. Those memories gave Anderson — plus many others who represented the Hendrick Hudson School District, the Town of Cortlandt and county and state police — cause to celebrate this week when the town launched its Back-To-School Safe Streets Campaign at the Cortlandt Youth & Recreation Center.
Both the campaign and the kickoff event center on Hendrick Hudson’s pilot program with BusPatrol to equip school buses with storm-arm cameras. The cameras, which are set to go live in October, capture footage of vehicles illegally passing buses. Drivers caught breaking the law will be issued tickets.
“We’ve been trying so hard,” said Anderson, a member of the PTA’s Advocacy Committee. “I’m so happy we now have these cameras to keep our kids safe.”
During the pilot program last school year, Transportation Supervisor Elizabeth Gilleo said the cameras captured 2,384 cars illegally passing Hendrick Hudson school buses alone. There are five cameras on each bus and recording is activated when a bus stops and its red lights turn on.
If a violation is made when the program goes live soon, Westchester County Police will automatically issue a ticket to the guilty driver.
“We’re doing this to keep our children safe,” Gilleo said.
Hendrick Hudson representatives — which also included Vineetha Joy, the district’s Executive Director of Technology & Innovation — were joined by Town of Cortlandt Supervisor Richard Becker, Councilwoman Cristin Jacoby, Town Board members Joyce White and Robert Mayes, Cortlandt Coalition Coordinator Colleen Anderson, Westchester County Police Department Lt. Mike Demaio, and New York State Assemblywoman Dana Levenberg, among others.
“This is just a devastating thing,” Becker said. “Anybody who sees a school bus stop sign and passes it deserves to be ticketed.”
Speakers at the event also emphasized overall road safety in addition to improved technology designed to keep students safe getting on and off buses.
The Cortlandt Community Coalition will distribute “Don’t Drive Distracted” air fresheners to students at Hendrick Hudson and Walter Panas High Schools. The students in attendance were also encouraged to remind friends and family members to refrain from reading or sending text messages while driving.
“We need you to all make smart decisions,” Jacoby said. “There are little things we all need to do together to be safe.”
Thanks to a partnership with Carvel in Croton-on-Hudson, police officers in Cortlandt are now carrying vouchers for free ice cream and will give them to students they spot wearing bike helmets.
It’s all in the name safety, or, as Sgt. Jim Dress of the Westchester County Police Department, said, “part of an all-in approach.”
“Let’s make sure we all work together to hold reckless drivers accountable,” added Levenberg. “Thank you to this incredible coalition.”
