Girl Saves School Bus From Crashing In Buffalo

If this happened to you, at 12 years old or 30 years old, it is unlikely that you would be eager to get back on a school bus again — if at all. 

It Started Out Normal...

A simple drive to school on the big yellow bus quickly unfolded into something more, when the school bus driver who was transporting students from King Center Charter School suffered a medical emergency, making the bus driver unable to control the vehicle.

The Medical Emergency

The medical emergency began on the corner of East Delavan and William Gaiter Parkway — all while the students of King Center Charter were still on the bus. 

It looked like the bus was going to crash at the oncoming intersection, until one young and unlikely hero changed the course of their lives.

A Hero Arose

The 12-year-old student, Aniyah McCrayer, was the only one who stepped up to prevent the bus from crashing. 

Everyone on the bus was watching in slow motion, including Aniyah, until they realized that the bus driver was unconscious. 

“I was like I’ve gotta save snap out of it,” Aniyah said. “I’ve got to save everybody's life.” 

Aniyah’s younger 8 year old brother, Rayshawn Heard, was also on the bus with Aniyah, and she was driven to save her classmates, yes, but she definitely wanted to save her brother. 

Aniyah is, without a doubt, a hero. 

The Decisive Moment

If she did not react as quickly as she did when her First Student bus driver passed out Thursday morning in Buffalo, the story may not have had a happy ending. 

“[I heard] somebody say — the bus driver fell — she passed out,” Aniyah McCrayer recalled. .

That was the decisive moment for her — when the 7th grader from King Center Charter approached the front of the bus, trying to handle the emergency. 

How She Stopped The Bus

In the quick few seconds Aniyah had to act, she called her father to make sure she was making the right moves and decisions. 

Aniyah saw a button that said stop, so she was able to stop the bus. 

“Then I went up to the front and I seen the brake, so I pushed the brake and that stopped it,” Aniyah said.

Had Aniyah stopped at the bus any later, it would have hit a pole that it just barely was able to stop in front of before colliding into it. 

When the bus finally stopped moving, it wasn’t exactly smooth. It was more of a sudden halt for the students on the bus, but it was a necessary stop. Otherwise, all the students in the bus would have most likely collided into that nearby pole. 

The girl’s brother, Rayshawn Heard, helped out his big sister by pushing open the emergency doors once the bus had stopped.

The Aftermath

The children were more than rattled as they waited for someone to help their bus driver. 

Buffalo Fire responded to the scene  just before 7:40 a.m. on Thursday, where they found the bus on the side of the street and an unresponsive driver on the bus floor.

Rescuers forced their way into the bus to remove the driver and perform life saving measures at the scene.

“She was on the floor,” Aniyah said of her bus driver.

 “I’m just like — oh my God what just happened — I’m traumatized.”

Aniyah said she didn’t think she could go to school after that. 

Additional Support For Students

However, for students who were later transported to school, including her younger brother, a school counselor and nurse were on hand to help them with any mental health issues that they may have developed from the experience earlier that morning. 

Aniyah said she doesn’t want to get on the bus anymore, but there is no denying that if she wasn’t on that bus on Thursday, the outcome could have been a lot different. Aniyah McCrayer is a hero.