Ohio bus driver acts fast to stop student from exiting as car passes stop lights
NEW CARLISLE, Ohio -- A bus driver in southwestern Ohio is being hailed as a hero after saving a child from stepping in front of a car.
Surveillance video shared on social media by the school district showed the moment bus driver April Wise was letting the student off her bus in New Carlisle, just outside Dayton.
At that moment, a car careened toward the child.
Wise leaped into action and grabbed the student by his bookbag and moved him away from the doors, just before he would have walked out in front of the passing car.
"He is one of my quickest students," Wise said. "It was just mother instincts kicked in."
The student was quick, but this time the bus driver was quicker.
"The only thing that went through my brain was to keep him from getting off the bus," Wise told WHIO-TV.
Wise, in her first year as a bus driver, said she always has to be on high alert though since drivers consistently choose to ignore school buses on the road.
"They do run our reds quite a bit," Wise said.
"I talk to my colleagues throughout the county and we see this on a frequent basis. Cars are not stopping for the red lights. This is not the first time that we've had a driver save a student and have video of it," Paula Crew, Superintendent of Tecumseh Local Schools, told ABC News.
The district law enforcement and state representatives honored Wise with an award on Monday.
"This goes far beyond what I had imagined to happen. I am very emotional," Wise said.
"The mom of the student came up to me right away and said to me several times 'thank you so much, thank you so much.'" Crew said. "She said her son came into the house and the first thing he did when he walked in, he said 'that bus driver just saved my life.'"
The superintendent says the video is being used by the Ohio Department of Transportation for school bus driving training to highlight how perfectly Wise checked her mirrors while students got off the bus.
"I so don't deserve this but I'm glad it's bringing awareness and hopefully more people will take it into consideration," Wise said.
