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High School Student Dubbed Hero for Helping Driver in School Bus Crash

Trey Halfhill of Kentucky helps a school bus driver after a crash that turned the bus on its side. He enters the bus and keeps the driver calm.

December 14, 2017
High School Student Dubbed Hero for Helping Driver in School Bus Crash

Trey Halfhill of Kentucky helped a school bus driver whose bus was involved in a crash that turned the bus on its side. He entered the bus and kept the driver calm. Screenshot from video by Lawrence County (Ky.) Emergency Management Agency

2 min to read


Trey Halfhill of Kentucky helped a school bus driver whose bus was involved in a crash that turned the bus on its side. He entered the bus and kept the driver calm. Screenshot from video by Lawrence County (Ky.) Emergency Management Agency

LOUISA, Ky. — A high school student here is being hailed as a hero after he helped a school bus driver whose bus was involved in a crash on Monday, WSAZ reports.

Trey Halfhill, 16, was on the way to school with his mother, and they happened to be the first people to arrive at the scene of the crash. The school bus had gone through a guardrail and flipped onto its side, according to the news source. Halfhill climbed inside the bus, ignoring his mother’s orders to stay back, and found the driver in her seat, in some pain, but with no serious injuries.

Meanwhile, Rick Blackburn, the transportation director for Lawrence County Schools, got a radio call from the driver and rushed to the scene, according to WSAZ. He was working on another issue involving a bus nearby and knew that no students were aboard the bus that was involved in the crash. When he arrived, he found Halfhill inside the bus, keeping the driver calm, the news source reports. He and Halfhill, along with several other bystanders, helped the driver out of the bus. The driver was taken to the hospital, but was able to go home on Tuesday and is OK, according to WSAZ.

Blackburn told the news source that the situation was “scary” and that the driver’s lack of serious injuries is “a miracle,” particularly when comparing the damage and collapsed roof at the back of the bus to the front, which is relatively untouched. He also told WSAZ that Halfhill is a hero. Halfhill said that he is “just a kid who did something I’m supposed to” and that it was “nothing big.”

To read the full story, go here.

Watch video footage from Michael Woods at the Lawrence County (Ky.) Emergency Management Agency of the bus after the crash below.

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