I’m not sure what has to happen to bring enough attention to the issue of drivers passing a stopped school bus with its flashing lights on. It ought to be common sense for every single licensed driver on the roads that this should be a red line. We rightly look out for stopped law enforcement and emergency response vehicles, utility workers trucks and others – are our kids and their bus drivers somehow less deserving?

Yet the other morning, not more than 90 seconds after hearing a radio report on the extremely sad case of a 13-year-old in Gray who was struck by a truck in this kind of scenario, I witnessed a driver who pulled around a stopped line of traffic on Brighton Avenue in Portland to pass a school bus picking up elementary school students.

Traffic was clearly stopped. The bus was clearly picking up students. There are already several traffic-calming measures in this neighborhood. Thankfully, all the students were already on the bus. But it still happened that this driver felt the need to go around traffic, into the middle of the road, and past a bus full of young kids.

Perhaps penalties should be increased. Maybe more traffic cameras or technology are needed. Perhaps more police or community volunteers are needed around school bus traffic. I’m frustrated that I don’t know the answer. But any of these alternatives seem better than yet another tragedy because yet another driver is too distracted or too rushed to care.

Matt Grondin
Cumberland