The pain in Rep. Cheryl Golek’s voice was unmistakable as she stood before her peers Thursday and recounted what happened on Nov. 17, 1997.

Golek’s son, Michael, was 7 years old at the time, and had stepped off his school bus to go home that day, the Harpswell Democrat told the Legislature’s Transportation Committee on Thursday. He crossed in front of the bus. The driver accelerated forward without realizing Michael was still there. The front bumper dragged the boy down the road before he fell to the pavement. The front tires rolled over him, then the back ones.

Michael’s brother saw what was happening, and ran into the street to help. Miraculously, Michael survived. But he suffered “severe trauma,” Golek said.

Nearly 30 years later, Maine lost two young students to school bus incidents within weeks of each other. Brayden Callahan, 12, died in November after his bus hit him while he crossed Route 1A in Rockland. Simon Gonzalez, 5, died in December when he was dragged after his arms got caught in the door of the school bus he was trying to board on a road in Standish.

Three Democratic lawmakers whose Midcoast districts each include the Regional School Unit 13 that Callahan attended worked with school leaders to craft a proposal that would require Maine school buses model year 2020 and older to have crossing arms, or long bars attached to the front right side. Drivers would have to activate them while picking up or dropping off students. In a nod to the Standish incident, an amendment also requires anti-pinch sensors for all buses.

Rep. Ann Matlack, a St. George Democrat who worked on the proposal, LD 2159, noted that state lawmakers approved two bills in recent years to require crossing arms and anti-pinch door sensors on future buses — but did not adequately fund or apply them to older buses.

“And two children paid with their lives,” Matlack told the Transportation Committee, “and their families and communities will always mourn their loss.”

No one testified in opposition to the latest bill during Thursday’s public hearing. Members of the Transportation Committee seemed aligned in their desire to pass it at their next meeting.

A precise fiscal estimate of the bill’s cost is pending, but Gov. Janet Mills said last week she is proposing $4.3 million in her supplemental budget to pay for bus crossing arms and anti-pinch door sensors.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the two recent deadly bus incidents in Maine and has only released preliminary reports so far. In the Rockland case, the 65-year-old bus driver has pleaded not guilty to a manslaughter charge, with a crash report saying he did not keep his eyes on the road after dropping off the young student who died.

Rep. Valli Geiger, D-Rockland, the lead sponsor of the new bill, noted Thursday the bus in Rockland had a crossing arm, but that preliminary reports found it was not activated as the student crossed in front. Crossing arms cost about $400 each plus installation costs, she said.

Matlack and Geiger said they want to implement any new law at the start of the 2026-27 school year. Geiger also said the bill may receive a further tweak to not require the use of crossing arms if buses are “lined up very closely together,” such as while waiting in a lot outside of a school.

The associations representing Maine school boards and superintendents said they are in favor of the proposal. Jennifer Belanger, a Maine Department of Education legislative specialist, also testified Thursday in support of it while saying about 1,120 buses in Maine would require retrofitting to receive crossing arms. Belanger said a few dozen buses in the state do not have the required air brake setups to be equipped with the arms.

An NTSB official has said the agency typically investigates 10 to 12 school bus crashes in Maine per year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found an average of 108 school transportation-related fatalities in the U.S. each year from 2013 to 2022.

Jennifer Foster, who said she is vice president of a group established to advocate for the families of the two boys killed last year, laid out urgent stakes for lawmakers with her testimony in favor of the bill.

“No one in this room here can say that these two boys’ deaths could not have been prevented if these buses had these safety features to begin with,” Foster said. “Their deaths should not be in vain.”