School bus
A heroic group of students prevented a disastrous school bus crash

Mississippi Students Stop Runaway School Bus After Driver Passes Out

A group of Mississippi middle schoolers banded together to stop a runaway school bus and prevent a disastrous crash.

Videos by Wide Open Country

During the after-school route, Leah Thomas, 46, suffered an asthma attack and lost control of the bus while driving down a four-lane highway. Thomas attempted to take her medication, but blacked out before doing so.

Seeing Thomas hunched over and struggling to breathe, one brave student leaped into action, preventing a potentially fatal collision.

Sixth grader Jackson Casnave, 12, who was sitting behind the driver, noticed the bus begin to swerve. Without hesitation, he grabbed hold of the steering wheel and called on his fellow students for assistance.

"I didn't have time to process my emotions," he told the AP. "I just wanted to make sure that nobody got hurt."

Darrius Clark, 12, pumped the brakes, and the students steered the bus to a median before bringing it to a full stop.

"The bus started rolling forward. It started like, gaining speed, so when I clicked the brakes, it about threw me out the windshield,"

As he hit the brakes, Clark's older sister, Kayleigh, 13, called 911. Amid the chaos, she noted that it was difficult to hear the 911 operator, according to the reports. 

"I was scared, but also I had to help," Kayleigh said.

Eighth grader Destiny Cornelius, 15, saw the driver was still clutching a nebulizer and helped administer the medication. McKenzy Finch, 13, assisted by holding the driver's head still.

Once the bus carrying 40 students came to a halt, Finch used Taylor's phone to alert the transportation district about the incident.

"I'm very proud of them, I couldn't ask for any better students than my students," Taylor told local news channel WLOX-TV, "I love every single one of them."

Taylor has since made a full recovery.

"I'm not surprised that our kids remained calm and acted swiftly," Principal Dr. Melissa Saucier told PEOPLE. "This emergency situation could've definitely been detrimental and they handled it exactly as they should have. We are extremely proud of them."