A Michigan middle schooler saved a busload of children when their driver lost consciousness as she was dropping them off at home.
13-year-old Dillon Reeves heroically prevented a catastrophic accident from happening when his bus driver fell ill and passed out while ferrying 65 children home from Carter Middle School on Wednesday.
A video of the incident showed the driver fanning herself with her hat, then calling in to the transportation hub to report that she felt ill and needed to pull over.
Before the driver could safely stop the bus, she passed out. Seconds later, Reeves, who was sitting in the fifth row, took action.
The bus was reportedly beginning to veer into oncoming traffic, when Reeves grabbed the steering wheel and guided the bus back into the proper lane, while stepping on the brake.
“Someone call 911. Now,” he yelled back to his panicking peers.
“A quick-thinking 7th-grade male student saw the driver in distress, stepped to the front of the
bus and helped bring it to a stop without incident,” Superintendent Robert D. Livernois wrote in a statement on Wednesday.
“The actions of the student who helped stop the bus made all the difference today, and I could
not be prouder of his efforts.”
In a press conference on Thursday, he said that the act “was an extraordinary act of courage and maturity” on Reeves’ part.
Livernois noted that the tween hockey player and band member “had the wherewithal to push the brake down slowly – likely in anticipation that the bus was full of passengers.”
After stopping the bus, Reeves was assisted by two adults who witnessed the incident occur.
A passerby hopped onboard to help with the driver, while a woman who had been driving behind the bus stopped and helped kids exit through the emergency door in the back.
The bus driver was taken to the hospital by ambulance and is currently in stable condition.
“It’s amazing, and this is like, such a good feeling to be so proud,” his mother said in an interview with Fox 2 Detroit.
Reeves will be honored by the mayor his hometown Warren with a resolution of appreciation “for his heroic actions that go above and beyond what most people would do.”
