It pays well to pay attention.
This is the lesson a teen and his classmates learned when they found themselves in the middle of an emergency. It might have been a situation they never imagined the see themselves in, but it happened to them on their way to school.
In school, we were taught how to deal with different kinds of emergencies, from choking, to fire drills, to CPR. For this teen and his classmates, they saw the importance of bus evacuation.
14-year-old Matt Stauffer, a high school student, thought the bus ride was just like any other.
The Carbon County resident boarded his bus that morning, but then disaster struck. He was walking down the aisle and into his seat when he noticed something with his classmates.
They had a look on their face that could only be described as a mix between panic and shock. He then followed where they were looking and was faced with a terrifying sight.
Their driver was leaning out of his seat.
“So I turned around, and the bus driver was like leaning out of his seat and only his seatbelt was holding him up,” said Stauffer to ABC affiliate WNEP 16.
Stauffer quickly responded by running up to the driver’s seat where he saw that the driver still has his foot stuck on the gas pedal.
Stauffer acted immediately.
He reached for the keys and turned off the bus’ engine. Then, he tucked the keys into his pockets to make sure that no one else could get them. This could help them minimize disaster, especially if someone tried to drive off with the vehicle.
He then instructed his classmates and other students to get off the bus. Stauffer stayed with the driver and held him up to make sure he was okay.
“Once they saw I was taking control, they all listened to me and they got off the bus and they all stayed in one area,” Stauffer said to the local news outlet.
The students called 911.
Fortunately, the responders made it there on time and took the driver to the hospital. The superintendent said that the driver was okay and was back home resting.
He also expressed how proud he was of how the students dealt with the situation. As teens, it’s sometimes hard to know if they’re listening to safety orientations and such. But this event proved that these teens knew how important these sessions were.
The students just had their routine bus evacuation drill and put it to practice.
“It’s refreshing to know that the students paid attention and employed the skills that we gave them last week, but also just snapping into action and the focus that he and the other students exhibited,” said Superintendent Dr. Brian Gasper told WNEP 16.
He also shared that their school district was planning on expressing their appreciation to all the students on the bus. They wanted to recognize the efforts of the students in making sure that all of their friends and classmates were safe.
Meanwhile, Stauffer insists that what he did was not “heroic”.
“I wasn’t really thinking. I was just acting, just doing what I thought was right,” Stauffer said to the news channel.
For him, it was just about helping others to the best of his abilities, no matter the situation.
Watch how this teen saved his classmates and their bus driver with his quick thinking in the video below!
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