“Just Keep Him Talking.” Stranger Climbs Into School Bus Wreckage To Soothe Driver.

Kenny Ferree didn’t set out to become a hero on a Wednesday morning in Forest Hills, Pennsylvania – but life had other plans.

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In fact, he was running late for work, so he shouldn’t have even been driving down Ardmore Boulevard at the exact moment when a public school bus crashed into a sign pole at a high rate of speed. But Kenny was there, and his swift reaction to the accident may have saved a life.

Kenny and his wife were driving when they heard a loud boom, followed by a shower of yellow debris across the roadway. The school bus had hit the pole so hard that it basically exploded the front end, leaving the vehicle’s entire engine exposed on the pavement. Kenny saw a front axle roll down the street, and a huge plume of smoke rose from the wreckage.

“When you looked over, you could not believe that anything or anybody was left,” said Kenny. “It disintegrated.”

Without thinking, Kenny pulled into the nearby Taco Bell parking lot and jumped out of his truck. He climbed up the crumpled bus and peered inside, relieved not to see any children. The driver was trapped behind the wheel, bleeding profusely from a gash in his head.

Kenny pulled off his sweatshirt and wrapped it around the injured driver’s head, applying pressure as they waited for help to arrive. The driver wasn’t thinking straight, but he repeatedly told Kenny that there were no children on board. He had just dropped them off at Pittsburgh Public School moments before the crash.

“Just keep him talking, keep after it until the professionals get here,” Kenny remembers thinking. “I’m not a professional. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m just someone who was in the right place at the right time trying to help.”

When first responders arrived, they had to cut through the crushed bus to get the driver out. He was taken to the hospital in stable condition. Kenny says he was talking as they took him away in the ambulance, so he’s hopeful that the man will make a full recovery. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the crash.

Kenny says he is just glad he happened to be running behind schedule that morning so he could help.

“What’s amazing is I was running late today,” he told a reporter. “Tell me why.”

We have to agree that Kenny was meant to be there at just this moment! Sometimes just talking to an accident victim and assuring them that help is on the way makes all the difference.

Share this story to thank Kenny for climbing into a smoking bus to help a stranger in need.