COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A school bus driver here is being credited for rescuing a motorist who was trapped inside an overturned vehicle.
After dropping students off at school one recent morning, Ricky Cooper, a driver for Cobb County School District, saw an overturned vehicle in a ditch off a road in Mableton, according to a news release from the school district. His immediate thought and fear, according to the district, was that “there are children in that car.” Cooper stopped his bus, and ran toward the vehicle, in which he found a woman trapped inside due to a jammed car door. He managed to pull the car door open and help the woman, who suffered an injured arm, out of the vehicle. One of the district’s other bus drivers was also on the scene and called 911 and waited with Cooper and the motorist until emergency personnel arrived, according to the district.
Cooper told Cobb County School District that he credits his bus driver training for knowing what to do, and that being a concerned father makes him do the right thing — or in this case, be a hero.
This isn’t Cooper’s first heroic act, according to the district. Last fall, he helped a Fulton County private school student who was lost and wandering along Mableton Parkway. Cooper gave the student his personal cell phone so the student could call his mother, and then stayed with him until Cobb County School District’s transportation staff and Fulton County private school staff arrived, according to the district.
“That’s the kind of person who has supported Cobb students for more than three years,” the district added. “He cares. His actions prove it.”
“Being a bus driver, you have to put kids first,” Cooper said of the actions he took to assist the student. “You are their first contact before their teachers or principals see them.”
Read the full news release about Cooper's heroic act, posted on Cobb County School District's Facebook page, below.
