Somerset County receives second largest grant for school bus safety

Governor Larry Hogan recently announced that Maryland will set aside $541,400 to help local law enforcement agencies with enforcing school bus safety laws.  Fifty different agencies from 21 jurisdictions will receive this grant for school bus safety programs.

It is specifically done to pay overtime to police officers who patrol school bus routes.

Somerset County Public Schools Transportation Supervisor Mike Bartemy tells 47 ABC this grant helps ensure safety. especially when it comes to “fly by’s”, which are cars that fail to stop and drive right past school busses as they’re dropping off or picking up students.

Bartemy says that it happens more often than he thought. He said that last April they did a survey across the state and there were over 4,000 fly by’s on school buses

With this statistic, Bartemy says that the children’s safety is their main goal.