Federal transportation safety authorities will investigate the school bus crash that killed a 5-year-old student in Standish this week.
The National Transportation Safety Board is reviewing the crash in conjunction with the Maine State Police and the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, a spokesperson for the federal agency said in a written statement Thursday.
A team of seven NTSB investigators is expected to arrive on scene beginning Friday and will coordinate with local authorities to gather information about the crash. The team includes specialists in driver performance, local transit policies, and procedures and road design, the statement said.
The NTSB did not say why it was looking into this particular crash. The agency said it regularly investigates road and highway crashes to identify possible “system-wide safety issues that could have nationwide impacts” and makes recommendations on how to prevent similar crashes from occurring in the future.
“School bus safety has been a focus of previous NTSB investigations and is an important issue for improving road safety,” the statement said.
There were an average of 108 school-transportation-related fatalities per year from 2013 to 2022, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The NTSB typically investigates 10-12 school bus crashes per year, according to an agency official.
The NTSB does not investigate criminal activity, it says on its website. “Our focus is solely on transportation safety and determining probable cause,” the site says.
The crash Tuesday near 437 Northeast Road, about a half-mile from Edna Libby Elementary School, killed 5-year-old Simon Gonzalez, a kindergarten student at the school.
Simon was the second Maine student to be hit and killed by a school bus in less than a month after 12-year-old Brayden Callahan, a student in Regional School Unit 13, was struck by a bus and killed in Rockland on Nov. 21.
The NTSB said Thursday that it is aware of the Rockland crash. The agency often looks at similar incidents as part of an investigation, but the spokesperson said they could not confirm whether the Rockland crash would be included in the upcoming probe.
State Sen. Jim Libby, a Republican whose district includes Standish, said in an interview Thursday that the NTSB contacted him Wednesday night to say they would be investigating. He issued a news release Thursday informing the public about the investigation.
Libby said he wasn’t sure what prompted federal investigators to get involved in the case.
“There are definitely questions, as there are always questions when an accident like this happens,” he said. “I suspect we’re going to learn a lot more about what happened.”
Police so far have released few details about the crash. The sheriff’s office on Wednesday identified the driver as 64-year-old Lori Ann Merrifield. She has not been charged in the incident.
In a letter to the community Thursday, Sheriff Kevin Joyce asked for the public to be patient with the police investigation, which he said is likely to take some time.
“This is a complex investigation with many layers where we will be anxiously awaiting the results of medical and mechanical examinations of evidence,” Joyce said.
He said he would share more information as it becomes available.
NTSB investigations typically take 12 to 24 months to complete. However, the agency said it expects to release a preliminary report with initial findings within 30 days.
