Not all heroes wear capes. Sometimes, they’re dressed in a green hoodie while riding a bus home from school. That description matches the quick-thinking young man featured in this video, identified as 13-year-old Dillon Reeves. The seventh-grader was on the bus when the driver suffered a medical emergency, passing out at the wheel. He stepped in almost immediately, bringing the bus full of students safely to a stop.
The incident occurred on April 26 at approximately 3:00 PM local time. In this case, local means Warren, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit roughly 20 miles north of downtown. According to Click On Detroit, the female bus driver started feeling dizzy and contacted dispatch, informing them she may need to pull over. Unfortunately, she loses consciousness as she’s slowing down, leaving the bus rolling on a busy residential street with traffic and houses all around.
The video shows Reeves coming forward within seconds of seeing the driver incapacitated. He grabs the wheel and steps on the brake, bringing the bus to a controlled stop. With screams in the background, he urgently asks someone to call 9-1-1. Clearly there’s concern on his face, but Reeves maintains his composure as he works to shift the bus into park.
As a result of his actions, there was no collision with other vehicles and no injuries. Emergency responders were on the scene within minutes, taking the as-yet unidentified bus driver to the hospital where she remains in stable condition, according to CNN. Students were off-loaded to another bus and taken home safely.
It goes without saying that pretty much the entire world is recognizing Reeves as a legit hero. Seated several seats back from the driver, he was the one who took action, telling local media that he’d watched the driver every day so he knew what to do. His parents also admitted to letting him sit on their lap when younger, steering the car around driveways.
“In my 35 years of education, this was an extraordinary act of courage and maturity on his part,” said Warren Consolidated Schools Superintendent Robert Livernois, according to Click on Detroit. “You would think in the middle of this panic that you would just jump on the brakes. He had the wherewithal to push it slowly, likely in anticipation that the bus was full of passengers.”
