Heroic Maine Crossing Guard Jumps Into Traffic To Prevent Disaster
If you live in or around Lewiston and travel down Farwell St, you are aware that at 3:00, it's going to be bumper to bumper traffic because that's when Farwell Elementary is let out.
I was on Farwell when school was set out and there were children walking and running everywhere.
According to Speed Limit USA, the speed limit in school zones in Maine, is 15 miles per hour. In those cases, when I personally am travelling down a school zone and it's bumper to bumper, to stay safe, I usually go like 1-5 MPH, because at 15 mph, you can still hurt someone..
I was always under the assumption that crossing guards were volunteers but apparently they do get paid. On average about 26,000 per year to guard the cross. That's about $17 bucks an hour according to Indeed.
The crossing guard present at Farwell yesterday should get a raise because what he had to deal with was something else!
I was two cars behind the crosswalk when I noticed some trouble ahead. The crossing guard was letting about 2 drivers go over the crosswalk at a time due to the amount of children having to cross the street and one of the cars sped up to try to get across to the other side.
What happened next was awesomely intense.
The crossing guard immediately ran right up to the window, with his big red stop sign in hand. The crossing guard yelled loudly at the driver. I heard pieces of it and it was mostly, "Hey what the bleep do you think you are doing, bleep bleep bleep!" Something like that.
After yelling a bit, he did not let the car continue on down the road he physically made the car back up to where they were before to wait for the children to cross.
This all happened in moments. It was quick and vital.
After the children crossed and the risky car drove away, I drove right up to the crossing guard, rolled down my window and thanked him for keeping the children safe.
You could tell he was still very flustered from what occurred moments before but then smiled extremely big from the recognition I gave him.
As I drove away, I questioned how many times a day near misses occur at schools zones with crossing guards.
This is a public thank you to the guard I witnessed yesterday as well as all the crossing guards in Maine for continuing to keep our children safe as well as an official request to give them all raises!
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