ST. PAUL, Minnesota — A 27-year-old bystander, Ebro Ahmed, ran onto a moving school bus and brought it to a stop on Monday afternoon after the driver suffered a medical emergency, ABC News and KSTP-TV (5 Eyewitness News) reported. Ahmed was standing outside a shop in St. Paul's Dayton's Bluff neighbourhood when a school bus rolled past with its doors open and he saw the driver seizing up.
Source: ABC News
"I saw a bus roll past me with the doors open, and I saw the bus driver seizing up," Ahmed told KSTP-TV. The bus was carrying Battle Creek Middle School students home after school. Ahmed said he counted 18 children aboard when police arrived; ABC News put the number at nearly 20. Saint Paul Public Schools confirmed only that there was a medical emergency on a bus route from Battle Creek Middle School, and no students were hurt.
Source: KSTP-TV via Hooray News
How he stopped the bus
By Ahmed's account, he ran onto the bus while it was still moving. He accidentally put it in reverse, then got it into neutral and pulled the parking brake. Once the bus was stopped, he called police and ambulances for the driver. Surveillance video from the shop, Bricks Snacks and Tobacco, shows him outside before he ran onto the moving bus; KSTP reviewed the footage. Ahmed said two girls sitting at the front helped him during the stop — they are not named or identified in this report, in line with protections for minors.
Saint Paul Public Schools told ABC News that paramedics responded to the scene and that no injuries were reported, School Transportation News reported. Students on the bus were transferred to another bus and sent home, and counselors checked in with the students on Tuesday, October 20.
Source: School Transportation News
Saint Paul Public Schools confirmed a medical emergency on a Battle Creek Middle School bus route and that paramedics responded. No injuries were reported among students or others. The detailed account of what happened inside the bus is Ahmed's own telling, supported by shop surveillance video reviewed by KSTP.
Ahmed, who has no formal medical training, credited the television drama Grey's Anatomy with helping him stay calm. "I feel like any person in my situation would have done the same thing," he said.