Suffolk Joins 'Operation Safe Stop' as Police Promise Zero Tolerance for Drivers Who Pass Stopped School Buses

Suffolk County police say they will show no leniency this week to drivers who pass stopped school buses, as the county joins a regional enforcement and education campaign aimed at a violation that bus cameras catch tens of thousands of times a year.

County Executive Ed Romaine and Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina announced Suffolk's participation in Operation Safe Stop on Wednesday at Saxton Middle School in Patchogue. They were joined by county legislators, school district officials, students and members of the county's committee of the New York Association of Pupil Transportation. Organizers describe it as a region-wide push to step up enforcement and educate drivers. The effort is tied to National School Bus Safety Week, which runs Oct. 19 through 23.

"Suffolk County has taken a comprehensive approach in the last few years to make our roads safer and to reduce reckless driving," Romaine said. "Operation Safe Stop is a necessary tool to ensure motorists understand the rules of the road and stop for flashing red lights. By partnering with law enforcement and our school districts, we are keeping our students safe."

Catalina said officers will be watching. "The safety of our students is our priority, and we have to make sure they can get to school and return home safely," he said. "This week serves as a reminder that we are going to be out there on the roads, and this will be a zero-tolerance effort by the department."

The county's School Bus Safety program, which uses cameras mounted on the sides of buses, issued about 83,000 citations for illegally passing school buses in 2024 and more than 73,000 in 2025, the Suffolk County Traffic and Parking Violations Agency said. Camera tickets go to the vehicle's owner. Officials said the decline shows progress but that the numbers remain far too high, and they played camera footage at the event showing drivers going around buses with their stop arms out.

Drivers stopped by police, rather than caught on camera, are ticketed personally and face steeper consequences. Under state law, a first conviction for passing a stopped school bus carries a fine of $250 to $400. A second conviction within three years carries a fine of $600 to $750, and a third or later conviction within three years carries $750 to $1,000. Jail time is possible depending on the severity of the offenses, the county said.

New York law makes it illegal to pass a school bus when its red lights are flashing, which signals that children are getting on or off. Statewide figures cited by the county estimate that about 50,000 vehicles illegally pass school buses in New York every day.

Seventh graders at Saxton described watching cars keep going after they stepped off the bus and said their biggest worry was that a classmate would be hit.

Patchogue-Medford Superintendent Patrick Harrigan said the job of protecting students does not end with bus drivers. "We rely on our dedicated bus drivers and transportation staff to keep them safe, but that responsibility extends to every motorist that we share the road with," he said. "No appointment, no meeting, no destination is more important than the life of a child."

Legislator Dominick Thorne said his message was simple. "The message today is to slow down and stop at these school buses," he said. "At the end of the day, as a father of a six- and a nine-year-old, I never want to get that call that a tragedy or an incident took place."

Legislator Stephanie Bontempi said the law exists because children cannot always judge traffic. "The reason we have these laws is that young children and teenagers are not as developmentally mature to spot dangers and traffic, or to be able to judge distance and speed," she said. "So it is critical that we abide by these rules."