The moment when a bus driver lost consciousness behind the wheel could have been a terrifying tragedy, but instead turned into a heartwarming story of heroism. When their Warren, Michigan, bus driver suddenly had a medical emergency, the startled students realized their bus was starting to careen into oncoming traffic.
A seventh grader at Lois E. Carter Middle School was sitting five rows back from the bus driver when the emergency occurred. Risking his own safety, he leaped up and ran to the front of the bus.
In video footage of the shocking moment obtained by ABC News, the driver realizes she was becoming faint. She tells dispatch that she was feeling faint and was pulling over, but before she could, she lost consciousness. Thankfully, in mere moments, the seventh-grade hero was able to stop what could have been a tremendous tragedy.
When he reaches the front of the bus, he grabs the wheel and stops the bus.
Amazingly, the heroic student didn’t panic and immediately slam on the brake, which could have thrown the students out of their seats or caused an accident. Instead, he gently brakes and allows the bus to come to a safe stop. He then tells the other students to call 911.
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"I could not be prouder of his efforts," Robert D. Livernois, Warren Consolidated Schools Superintendent, said about the student at a press conference following the event. "He had the wherewithal to push it [the brake] slowly, likely in anticipation that the bus was full of passengers…The Warren Police and Fire Departments responded very quickly, tended to the driver, and the students were safely loaded onto a different bus to make their way home."
During the press conference, the student’s parents, Steve and Ireta Reeves, said they were so proud of their son’s heroic act, and his father explained how he knew how to drive.
"He’s been on my lap driving country roads, pulling in driveways since about 4 years old," Steve Reeves said. "Driving side by side with me in the passenger seat about 9, driving golf carts."
"He’s a good driver," he added with a chuckle.
"I’m just … I can’t even express the proudness," mom Ireta Reeves said at the press conference. "I’m extremely proud of him."
This story originally appeared on Simplemost.
