A 13-year-old boy is being called a hero for his quick action – getting behind the driver’s seat of his school bus when the driver suffered a medical emergency.
Karson Vega was taking the bus home from LaGrange Middle School in Texas on Thursday when he noticed the driver acting erratically.
‘He was going off in the ditch almost every turn, and then he started driving and swerving and stuff,’ the teen told KXAN. ‘I noticed something was wrong.’
After his bus driver suffered a medical emergency last week, 13-year-old Karson Vega took over and drove the bus for more than two miles
Vega’s proud mom gives him a bug during an interview about the incident
So Vega ran to the front of the bus and got behind the wheel, kicking the driver’s feet off the pedals so he could control the bus.
‘I was like “no, I’m not dying”, so I jerked the wheel,’ he said.
Vega drove the bus for about two miles down Highway 71, over a bridge that crosses the Colorado River.
Meanwhile, a sophomore at the high school, Kyler Buzek, sat in the back and comforted the younger children while updating a 911 dispatcher about their location.
When Vega was eventually able to bring the bus to a stop safely, emergency responders got on board and took the driver off.
The driver was taken to the hospital where he was treated and is now in recovery. School officials won’t say what kind of episode he suffered.
Above, a picture of where the bus came to a stop, on a bridge crossing the Colorado River on Thursday
Vega’s mother believes it’s fate that her son was on the bus that day because he doesn’t usually take it.
‘There was a reason he was on that bus that day because normally he doesn’t,’ his mom said.
She’s also happy he knows so much about cars. The teen regularly asks his family to let him practice driving on back roads.
‘My uncle let me drive his 18-wheeler, so it’s pretty much the same thing,’ Vega said.