MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. – A Macomb County middle school student stopped his school bus as the driver passed out.
The seventh-grade student was honored for saving his middle school classmates from a dangerous situation.
Students were heading home from Carter Middle School Wednesday (April 26) when the bus driver lost consciousness about a mile and a half down Masonic between Schoenherr and Hayes roads.
The bus driver called home base because she was feeling lightheaded. The video is dramatic, and scary to think about what might have been.
The female bus driver began slowing down but never completed the task because she lost consciousness, and the bus began to veer into oncoming traffic.
That’s when seventh grader Dillon Reeves jumped up from his seat, took the wheel, and slowly stopped the bus while telling his classmates to call 911.
Even with the panic inside the bus, Reeves remained calm.
“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.
On Thursday, Livernois praised Reeves for his quick thinking.
“You would think in the middle of this panic that you would just jump on the breaks,” Livernois said. “He had the wherewithal to push it slowly, likely in anticipation that the bus was full of passengers.”
Reeves’ parents couldn’t believe it when they heard.
“To do something like this fills my heart,” said Dillon’s mother, Ireta Reeves. “It makes my heart skip a beat. I’m extremely proud of him.”
“We have a little hero,” said Dillon’s father, Steve Reeves.
So how did the 13-year-old year old know what to do?
He’s been on my lap driving country roads, pulling in driveways since about four years old,” Steve said.
Ireta says her son is very observant as he watched the bus driver stop many times. The “Know-how” is one thing, but the calm under pressure is another.
Dillon Reeves’ parents say he has been overwhelmed by the attention the story has already gotten, and they decided he would not take any questions after the ceremony.
The school board plans to honor him very soon.
Regarding the bus driver, her name has not been released because she has not yet been released from the hospital.
Livernois called her one of the best they have. As for Dillon Reeves, Ireta says he wants to be a police officer when he grows up.