Students aged 12 to 15 steered bus to safety and called for help after driver lost consciousness from asthma attack

Middle school students in Mississippi acted quickly to halt their school bus from crashing after their driver passed out while on a highway, prompting the operator to declare: “They saved my life.”

The bus in question had just left the Hancock middle school in the Mississippi community of Kiln on Wednesday when the driver, Leah Taylor, suffered an asthma attack and lost consciousness.

Students on the bus leapt into action, with sixth-grader Jackson Casnave, 12, grabbing the wheel after noticing the bus had started to swerve. “I didn’t have time to process my emotions,” Casnave told the Associated Press. “I just wanted to make sure that nobody got hurt.”

Another sixth-grader, Darrius Clark, attempted to help by stepping on the brakes as the bus gained speed. “And then, so she passed out again and then the bus started rolling forward, and I mean it started gaining speed so I didn’t know it had air brakes – so when I clicked the brakes it about threw me out the windshield,” Clark said.