Driver Credited for Keeping Students Safe After School Bus Loses Power

Judy Scott of Illinois is able to pull the bus over and apply the bus's emergency brake after it loses power when she hits a bump while driving.

Sadiah Thompson・Assistant Editor

May 8, 2019

Driver Credited for Keeping Students Safe After School Bus Loses Power — Judy Scott (pictured fifth from left), a driver with Sesser-Valier Community Unit School District #196, is able to pull the bus over and apply the bus's emergency brake after it loses power when she hits a bump while driving. Photo courtesy Jason Henry

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Judy Scott (pictured fifth from left), a driver with Sesser-Valier Community Unit School District #196, is able to pull the bus over and apply the bus's emergency brake after it loses power when she hits a bump while driving. Photo courtesy Jason Henry

SESSER, Ill. — A school bus driver here is being recognized for keeping students safe after the bus she was driving lost power on Saturday.

Judy Scott, a driver with Sesser-Valier Community Unit School District (CUSD) #196, was transporting Sesser-Valier High School students and chaperones home from a math contest at the University of Illinois when her bus lost power along Interstate 57, according to a post on the Illinois State Police’s Facebook page. Scott, who has been driving for 43 years, told KFVS that the bus lost power when she hit a bump in the road, and that she had to coast along the roadway before pulling over and applying the bus’s emergency brake. No one was hurt, according to police.

After Scott was able to secure the bus, police said a trooper sat behind the bus to ensure everyone on board was safe, and dispatched the closest school bus available to transport them off of the road. Police added that a bus from Villa Grove CUSD #302 was able to pick everyone up, and headed to Tuscola to get ice cream while they waited for another Sesser-Valier CUSD #196 bus to transport them back to the high school.

Illinois State Police said that “it’s remarkable that drivers moved over and slowed down” as they passed the bus on the side of the road, and that Scott is a “true angel” for her actions in saving the students' lives.

Read the full post on the Illinois State Police’s Facebook page here.

Topics:driver heroism Illinois Safety

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