The quick actions of five middle school students may have prevented a disaster.
On Wednesday, a group of students from Hancock Middle School in Mississippi worked together after their school bus driver experienced a medical emergency and passed out.
Leah Taylor, the driver, told WLOX that the "students stepped up when I passed out driving the bus."
“She kind of fell over, like flopped over, and everyone started standing up,” McKenzy Finch, a sixth-grade, told the station.
Despite most of their driving experience likely being reserved to video games or four-wheelers, the students sprung into action and devised a genius way to stop the bus by working together.
With the vehicle still in motion, Jackson Casnave, who is also in sixth-grader, rushed to grab the bus's steering wheel.
“I saw that the bus was veering off to the side. Then, I grabbed the wheel,” he said. “It was just adrenaline pumping.”
Another classmate, Darius Clark, engaged the buses' air brake.
While those students worked to stop the bus, others attended to Taylor, with McKenzy and eighth-grader Destiny Cornelius administered aid to the driver.
Darius told the broadcaster that he had a harrowing experience with the air brakes.
“So, she passed out again, and then, the bus started rolling forward. It started gaining speed,” Darrius said. “I didn’t know it had air brakes, so when I clicked the brakes, it about threw me out the windshield.”
Once the boys has the bus under control, they parked it near a median and waited for help.
Destiny said she noticed that Taylor had been reaching for her medicine before she passed out.
“I saw her medication in her hand, and I saw her reaching for it. I knew that’s what she needed,” she told the broadcaster.
Taylor told reporters that she is feeling much better and is proud of the students on her bus.
“I’m very proud of them. I couldn’t ask for any better students than my students on my bus. I love every single one of them,” Taylor said. “I’m gonna think of how they saved my life.”
The school recognized the students with a pep rally. Melissa Saucier, the school's principal, said the students did exactly what was necessary to avoid injury or death.
“I’m not surprised to hear that our kids remained calm and acted swiftly,” Saucier said. “This emergency situation could have definitely been detrimental. They handled it exactly how they should have, and we’re extremely proud of them.”
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