Students recall harrowing bus ride

Janelle Hernandez was sitting in the back, right side of bus No. 250 on Feb. 1 as the bus slid into a front yard near 55th and Mayberry Streets.

Janelle was talking with her sixth-grade classmate Nyabol Chuol when she looked up and saw bus driver "Mr. Pat" passed out, slumped in the driver's seat.

Janelle dashed to Pat Corbitt's side, held his head up and started patting his face. Corbitt wasn't responding.

Many of the other students on board were crying and shouting.

Janelle remembered her phone was in her backpack. So she sprinted back to her seat but couldn't get her phone to work. Then she saw a passer-by and told the person to call 9-1-1.

Nyabol went to aid the driver, and another classmate led students out the back exit of the bus.

"I didn't know what else to do. I just did it," said Janelle, 12.

She and her fellow bus riders were honored Thursday morning during a special presentation at Washington Elementary School, 5519 Mayberry St., where the bus was headed at the time of the incident.

"Mr. Pat" was also in attendance.

"I was so happy that Mr. Pat was here," Janelle said.

None of the 22 students on board was injured. The bus, as it veered off the road, narrowly missed striking a home.

Corbitt, 54, was taken to University of Nebraska Medical Center in serious condition.

He declined to discuss Thursday what caused him to pass out. He said he's not driving a bus now but hopes to in the future.

He and other First Student bus officials gave the students certificates and gift cards, thanking them for their quick thinking.

Luanne Nelson, spokeswoman for the Omaha Public Schools, said students practice bus-evacuation drills twice a year. She commended the Washington students for using what they learned.

The students were honored at the beginning of an already-planned school assembly.

Contact the writer:

402-444-1074, jonathon.braden@owh.com

twitter.com/jonathonbraden

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