AN ACT authorizing the use of school bus camera recorded images as prima facie evidence demonstrating a failure to stop for A school bus and appropriating funds for the installation and operation of school bus cameras.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 20‑217 reads as rewritten:

§ 20‑217.  Motor vehicles to stop for properly marked and designated school buses in certain instances; evidence of identity of driver.

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(h)        Automated school bus safety cameras, as defined in G.S. 115C‑242.1, may be used to detect and prosecute violations of this section. Any photograph or video recorded by an automated school bus safety camera shall, if consistent with the North Carolina Rules of Evidence, be admissible as evidence in any proceeding alleging a violation of subsection (a) of this section. Recorded images from a school bus safety camera showing that a school bus was stopped and was displaying its mechanical stop signal or flashing red lights shall be prima facie evidence that (i) the school bus was stopped for the purpose of receiving or discharging passengers and (ii) the school bus was equipped and marked in compliance with this section. Failure to produce a photograph or video recorded by an automated school bus safety camera shall not preclude prosecution under this section.

SECTION 2.(a)  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Public Instruction the sum of one million dollars ($1,000,000) in nonrecurring funds for the 2024‑2025 fiscal year to be allocated to local school administrative units for the purchase and installation of automated school bus safety cameras.

SECTION 2.(b)  This section becomes effective July 1, 2024.

SECTION 3.  Except as otherwise provided, this act becomes effective December 1, 2024, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.