CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina based company is trying to help keep kids safe at the bus stop. 

According to N.C. Bus Safety, about 3,000 drivers a day pass school bus stop arms in North Carolina.

Since 1999, 14 children have been killed while trying to get on or off the bus. It’s an issue school systems across the state have been trying to address for years.

Now, a Winston-Salem company has created an extended stop arm for buses.

The new stop arm goes all the way into the opposite lane to alert drivers that kids are getting on or off the bus.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools have been testing the new product on four buses this year. For bus drivers like Shavadra Jones, it’s an important change.

"The other stop arms... you really can’t see them until you’re up on it,” Jones said. “So this is not an excuse, the lights are constantly blinking on here. So it’s a great thing."  

More than 700 extended stop arms are now in use across 26 North Carolina school districts.