In 2018, the Tennessee Highway Patrol issued 40 citations to drivers who failed to stop for a school or church bus, through November 13th of this year.
The Knoxville Police Department issued two in just the past three weeks.
The new numbers come weeks after five children were killed in three days last month at school bus stop crashes around the country.
"I don’t want to be that one on the radio that goes, we have a problem here. We’ve just had a child hit," said Kreis Baldridge, a school bus driver in Knox County for Gentry School Bus Lines. "Don’t nobody want to hear that."
School bus drivers are also warning cars to slow down and stop when they see buses dropping off and picking up kids. Baldridge says he has seen more than a dozen cars at a time disobey his bus’ stop arm while he was parked at a bus stop on the side of Broadway.
"When I have stopped to pick up students at a certain stop, I’ve reported anywhere from 15 to 20 cars at a time running that," Baldridge said. "You hold your breath because the students that you’re picking up, they’re not paying attention and they just see the bus and just start crossing the street, not aware that that car has decided to speed up."
The Tennessee Highway Patrol issued 40 citations around the state this year for cars that failed to stop for a school bus. In 2014, Troopers issued 75 citations, the most of any year since 2013.
A new White House petition with nearly 15,000 signatures urges the federal government to enforce stricter punishments for drivers who disobey school bus safety laws.
"I think the fines need to be steeper. I think anything that you do concerning children that puts children at risk, something needs to be done, something needs to step up," Baldridge said. "You’re not going to save yourself 45 seconds one way or the other. But you could be risking a lifetime, what could happen by speeding up."