Woman's viral videos of drivers illegally passing school bus lead to citations

Woman recorded videos of deputies pulling drivers over

Source: Monica Douglas/Facebook

A Florida woman says she was just trying to help her friend at her daughter's bus stop, and now her videos of drivers cruising past a stopped school bus have gone viral and led to citations for those drivers.

It's the law across the country, when a school bus is stopped with its stop sign extended and lights flashing, drivers must stop. But Pasco County, Florida has a problem familiar to many other communities -- drivers aren't obeying the law, and it's putting children's safety at risk. 

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Monica Douglas took videos of the recurring issue and sent them to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

This week, she was out recording again. But this time, deputies were waiting down the street. As the vehicles passed the bus, the deputies pulled out in front of them and stopped traffic.

According to Douglas' Facebook post, the sting led to 15 citations.

In the video she posted, you can hear Douglas shouting "Ha ha ha ha. Enjoy those tickets!" and "Thank you Pasco sheriff's officer! We appreciate you so very much!"

Warning: there is strong language in the videos.

We just want to thank the Pasco sheriff's Department and the ABC Action News for coming to do a segment so far alone on...

Posted by Monica Douglas on Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Video from the Pasco County Sheriff's Office:

Smith Traffic Stop 11/14/18

As we have been posting about this morning, IT IS THE LAW to stop for stopped school buses. This is to protect the children who are unloading from the bus. With recent reports of infractions, an Enforcement Action Plan was created for a noted bus stop on US 19. This body worn camera video from Deputy Justin Smith shows himself and Deputy Ashlyn Reese making several traffic stops yesterday morning as vehicles continued driving past a stopped bus as children were unloading. These enforcement actions will continue. We share this video and the post from earlier today to raise awareness to this issue and help to stop it from occurring any more.

Posted by Pasco Sheriff's Office on Thursday, November 15, 2018

About the Author:

Julie Moreno has worked in local television news for more than 25 years. She came to KSAT as a news producer in 2000. After producing thousands of newscasts, she transitioned to the digital team in 2015. She writes on a wide variety of topics from breaking news to trending stories and manages KSAT’s daily digital content strategy.