It’ll Be Hard to Miss The New Safety Addition on Maine School Buses

If you've seen it once, you've seen it too many times: the school bus slows to a stop and throws out the little blinking STOP sign to signal drivers in all directions that it's unsafe to pass, as kids who are dismounting the bus may have to cross the street to get to their house. Busy Barbara just can't wait, and zooms on by, making you cringe and emit and audible, "Nonono!" while anticipating the worst.

Bus drivers, unfortunately, experience this impatience, ignorance, or whatever it may be, all too often. It needlessly puts kids' lives at risk and is one of those rules of the road that should NEVER be broken, no matter what kind of rush you're in.

Luckily, that will soon be changing. School buses in Maine are being retrofitted with a stop sign expansion pack, if you will. The extended arm folds out to a whopping 6-foot span, dwarfing the previous 18" sign by a long shot and practically barricading the road from impatient drivers itching to pass on the left. Here's a still from News Center Maine's video about the safety addition:

News Center Maine's coverage shows that the new sign addition would be hard to miss even if you're changing the radio station, talking on the phone, and eating your breakfast behind the wheel. No one will have an excuse for not stopping any longer.