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RALEIGH - An accident that claimed the life of a Rockingham County student in January has given an extra push to legislation that lawmakers plan to file this week that would allow cameras to be placed on school bus stop arms.

Nicholas Adkins, 16, was hit and killed by a driver who ignored a school bus stop sign, which activates when students are boarding and getting off.

Rep. Dale Folwell, a Forsyth County Republican, and Rep. Nelson Cole, a Rockingham County Democrat, will introduce a bill today or Tuesday named in Adkins' honor that would further tighten North Carolina's laws on school bus stop signs.

Specifically, the Nicholas Adkins School Bus Safety Act would allow school districts to install cameras on their buses and allow pictures taken with those cameras to be used in court against those who ignore an activated sign.

"We want Nicholas' family and friends and community to know that he's not forgotten in terms of our focus on trying to prevent this from happening again," said Folwell, who lost his 7-year-old son when a driver ran past a school bus stop sign in 1999.

The bill is the fourth in recent years to crack down on such violators. Previous legislation has forbidden judges from giving lenient judgments to violators and increased the penalties associated with the crime.

This latest version came as a recommendation of the North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force, a group that advises the General Assembly on ways to prevent injuries to children of all ages.

"School buses are passed 400,000 times a year in North Carolina," said Tom Vitaglione, chairman of the task force. "The fact we're not losing more children is a miracle."

Despite recent changes to the law, prosecuting stop arm violators remains difficult and happens only in a small percentage of cases reported by school bus drivers.

Currently, the law is unclear on whether pictures taken by a school bus could be used in issuing citations. Vitaglione said the bill put forward by Folwell and Cole would clear up any confusion and clear the way for local school districts to equip their buses to catch violators.

The task force also is trying other ways to educate the public, including adding a school bus stop arm to the sign-recognition test drivers take when they renew their licenses.

In addition to the stop signs, Cole noted, school buses also have yellow and red blinking lights to alert drivers that kids are loading or unloading.

"I don't understand how they don't see the blinking yellow lights or the blinking red lights," Cole said. "It's beyond me."

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com