Laura Applin, from Gorham, outside of Hannaford’s in Standish on Wednesday, December 17, 2025. Applin said she has a seconder grader who rides the bus home from school and the safety of her child on the bus in something she thinks about. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)
The recent deaths of two Maine children who were killed getting on or off a school bus have rattled parents across the state who entrust bus drivers with their children’s safety every day.
But while they mourn those losses, many said they continue to have faith in their bus drivers and school transportation, even if they might struggle a bit more with letting their students go in the morning.
In Standish on Wednesday — a day after the death of 5-year-old Simon Gonzalez — parents told a reporter that the recent accidents raised concerns but likely won’t prompt them to change their routines.
“She still takes the school bus home, but (safety) is a concern,” said Laura Applin, the parent of a Gorham second grader. “I don’t know if I’ll change anything, but it’s definitely a thought in my mind, whether I want her to be taking the school bus home.”
Simon’s death came just three weeks after a Rockland middle school student, Brayden Callahan, was hit and killed by a school bus after he was dropped off.
Police identified the Standish bus driver as 64-year-old Lori Ann Merrifield on Wednesday afternoon. She has not been charged in connection with the crash. Also Wednesday, a lawyer announced plans to file a lawsuit against Rockland-based Regional School Unit 13 and the driver in that case, Jeffrey Colburn, who has also not been charged.
The two deaths in such a short time frame have raised questions about whether more needs to be done on a policy level to prevent such fatal accidents or whether the timing was a coincidence that amplified the tragedies. Most parents who spoke seemed to lean toward the latter.
A small memorial is set up Wednesday near the site in Standish where 5-year-old Simon Gonzalez was hit and killed by a school bus the previous day. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)
Joy Engel, of Cape Elizabeth, a parent of two young children including a kindergartener, said she was at a loss for words over the incidents.
“I’m grieving for the families, for the students in that child’s class and school, and for the state at large to have two of these incidents happen at all — let alone so close together,” said Engel, a member of the Cape Elizabeth school board. “I’m absolutely devastated.”
Erin Cavallaro, of Westbrook, the parent of a 7-year-old son who rides the bus to school every day, said her heart was broken.
“As a parent, any time a child is injured or killed in a way that might be preventable … it shakes you, and it makes you think that what seems impossible might actually happen” she said.
South Portland parent and school board member Eleni Richardson said amid recent school shootings, like those at Brown University and in Australia over the weekend, sending her kids away on the bus already feels like a loss of control.
“I put my two boys on the bus every day and watch them drive away, and feel a little bit sick each time I do,” Richardson said.
But Engel, Cavallaro and Richardson all said they will all continue to send their children to school on the bus each day.
Cavallaro, also a member of Westbrook’s school committee, said she sees the incredible work of bus drivers and educators and how much of a priority student safety is.
“I will certainly put him on the bus tomorrow knowing he’s in trusted and capable hands,” she said. “Will I maybe wave a little longer as he drives away? Sure.”
Richardson said her kids’ bus driver is wonderful, and extremely thoughtful about pedestrian and student safety during drop-off and pickup. Still, she said, in light of the Rockland and Standish accidents, she plans to pose questions to the board about best practices and qualifications for drivers in her district.
Ashley North, of West Baldwin, who has three children in the Massabesic school district, said her kids all take the bus, and she hasn’t had any concerns. She said her district is very good about transportation safety, but in light of the two deaths, wondered if the state could be offering more refreshers or training on protocols to prevent fatal accidents.
Adrian Dowling, another South Portland school board member and advocate for safe school transportation, worries about the distress the incidents are causing for the thousands of bus drivers in the state who work hard every day to keep kids safe.
But he doesn’t want the two deaths to cause harmful panic.
“Parents are right to be concerned and to find this upsetting, but I think the worst outcome would be if students start pulling their students off buses,” he said.
Dowling said students are at a greater risk of injury or death in a personal vehicle, citing a statistic from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that less than 1% of traffic fatalities involve children on school buses, making them one of the safest vehicles on the road.
That tracks in Maine as well. Only five students have died while getting on or off school buses since 1970, according to the Maine Department of Transportation.
