The school bus driver who allegedly hit and killed a 5-year-old boy in Standish has been identified.
Lori Ann Merrifield, 64, was driving a school bus on North East Road, also known as Route 35, about 7:57 a.m. Tuesday when she allegedly hit Simon Gonzalez, according to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office.
The kindergartener died at the scene.
Merrifield, whose identity was made public Wednesday afternoon, was driving the bus, which has been impounded as evidence, for MSAD 6.
The crash happened just blocks from the Edna Libby Elementary School, where Gonzalez attended classes.
The investigation is ongoing.
It’s the second fatal school bus crash in Maine in less than a month. On Nov. 21, an RSU 13 school bus driven by 65-year-old Jeffrey Colburn of Camden fatally struck 12-year-old Brayden Callahan while the child was in a crosswalk in Rockland. His parents this week hired the law firm Steve Smith Trial Lawyers. Coburn is no longer employed by the school district.
