Live Power Lines Fall On Londonderry, NH School Bus With Students On Board
LONDONDERRY, NH (CBS) - Live power lines fell on a school bus in Londonderry, New Hampshire Tuesday morning with 12 students on board. The students all made it off the bus safely and their driver is being hailed as a hero for how she handled the situation.
As crews worked to restore power on King John Drive Tuesday night, kids on the street were recounting a morning school bus ride like no other.
"We heard like a thump," student Ethan Miller said.
"I was pretty scared," another student said.
It was at 8:30 a.m. when the wind snapped a tree right behind the bus taking kids to Londonderry's Thornton Elementary.
"If she was 20 seconds late, that tree would have fallen right on the middle of the bus," said neighbor Justin Lavoie.
But neighbors who scrambled over to help found the bus stopped with another problem, a bunch of downed live wires on top of it.
"There was a bus with wires draped across the top and that's when it kind of got interesting," Lavoie said.
"Yes, it was like a spider web," Ethan Miller said.
As the call went out for first responders, the veteran bus driver tackled the essential job of calming a dozen jittery youngsters.
"Just trying to calm the kids down," Ethan said. "Making sure that they were fine and like make sure that they were safe."
"Really grateful for their bus driver, she's incredible," said mother Lindsay Young. "I'm sure that she was very worried."
It took 45 minutes for rescuers to shut down power to the neighborhood and safely remove the kids to another waiting bus. The kids were late to school but arrived without a scratch.
"My whole day was kind of head spinning of the what-ifs or what could have happened, but they were very lucky," Young said.
The bus driver said she didn't want to talk about her quiet heroics and she made her after school pickup run just like any other day.