Montgomery County police issued 269 citations during the first week of the 2026-2027 school year to drivers who illegally passed stopped school buses.
The new school-year citations come after 40,854 violations were recorded during the 2025-2026 school year. That was a 19.1-percent decrease from the previous school year, but police say thousands of drivers continue to put students at risk by passing stopped buses.
The locations with the most violations last school year were the 5100 block of River Road in Bethesda, the 8800 block of Colesville Road in Silver Spring, and the 7100 block of Arlington Road in Bethesda.
Police are proactively patrolling school zones throughout Montgomery County for drivers who pass stopped buses, speed, drive distracted or engage in other dangerous behavior.
A driver caught by an automated school-bus camera can receive a $250 citation. A driver stopped by a police officer can face a fine of up to $570 and three points on their driving record.
One additional point from the county’s school-bus monitoring data: the River Road and Colesville Road locations have consistently ranked among the county’s highest-violation areas, reinforcing the concern about those corridors.
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