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Senate committee approves steeper fines for repeat school bus stop‑arm violations
Summary
Senate File 737, which raises mandatory minimum fines for repeat violations of school bus stop arms and continues support for school bus stop‑arm camera grants, was recommended to the Judiciary Committee after testimony from school bus operators and the Minnesota State Patrol.
The committee voted to advance Senate File 737, a bill that keeps the existing mandatory minimum for a first stop‑arm violation at $500 but raises mandatory minimum fines for repeat violations to $700 for a second offense and $950 for a third offense.
Senator Mary Housley, the bill sponsor, said current penalties are identical for a first or hundredth violation and that a graduated fine structure aims to deter repeat offenders. Housley cited observational data presented in committee: one study day in which bus drivers observed 1,003 stop‑arm violations, a figure she said would extrapolate to roughly 165,000 violations over a full school year.
Eric Simonson, representing the Minnesota School Bus Operators Association (MSBOA), told the committee the association represents…
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