Carter Middle School student Dillon Reeves is seen stopping a bus on April 26, 2023, after the driver lost consciousness. Carter Middle School
A Michigan seventh grader, who took control of his school bus after the driver passed out, was the only passenger not distracted by his phone, CBS News reported on Sunday.
In a video that went viral last month, Dillon Reeves, a student at Lois E. Carter Middle School in Warren, Michigan, is seen saving more than 60 children after he took over the steering wheel from the bus driver who had become unconscious.
Reeves’ father told CBS that he thinks part of the reason why his son was so alert was because he doesn’t have a phone and was looking out the window.
“What else are you going to do when you don’t have a phone? You’re going to look at people, you’re going to notice stuff. You’re going to look out the window,” Dillon’s father, Steve, told CBS. “It’s a very powerful lesson, maybe a change-the-world kind of lesson.”
Other students on the bus that day told CBS that they were all on their phones, and hadn’t noticed the driver had passed out.
“I had my AirPods in,” one student said, while another added: “I was on my phone playing a little game.”
In the video, Reeves is seen rushing to the front of the bus, putting his foot on the brake, and grabbing the wheel before telling his fellow students: “Someone call 911, now!” as they scream in the background.
The seventh grader was eventually able to bring the bus to a stop without incident before two passersby stepped in to help the students off the bus and attend to the driver.
None of the students were injured in the incident and the 40-year-old bus driver was brought to the hospital in “stable” condition, Warren Fire Commissioner Skip McAdams told CNN.
The boy’s stepmother, Ireta Reeves, told reporters at the time that her son knew exactly how to stop the bus because he had watched the driver do it every day.
