He didn’t have a phone. He realized that when the bus driver passed out.


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When Steve Reeves received a call from police officers about his son late last month, he asked, “What has he done?”
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But the caller assured Reeves it was a “good call,” the father recalled in an interview with CBS News.
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“Your son is a hero,” they told Reeves. “He stopped the bus.”
That afternoon, his son Dillon, a seventh grader in Warren, Michigan, grabbed the steering wheel of his school bus and stopped it after the driver lost consciousness. The bus ran into oncoming traffic, but Dillon’s quick action saved about 60 students on board from an accident. Of those students, Dillon was one of the few not looking at a cell phone, which helped him notice the driver’s emergency, his family said in the CBS report that aired Friday.
“What else do you do when you don’t have a phone?” Reeves said. “You’re going to look at people. You will notice things.”
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On April 26, the unidentified school bus driver was driving students home from Carter Middle School when she became dizzy.
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“I’m really dizzy,” the driver said over the radio on the bus, according to video footage of the incident. “Maybe I have to stop.”
Then she began to lose consciousness. Her hands seemed to fall off the steering wheel.
Seconds later, Dillon, who was about five rows back, came to the front of the bus, grabbed the steering wheel, put his foot on the brake, and stopped the bus as students screamed around him.
A student who was on the bus told CBS, “All of a sudden the brakes are applied.”
“We were all just scared and shocked,” said another. A third student said, “And then I looked up and saw him.”
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“Somebody call 911,” Dillon shouted, according to video footage from the front of the bus. “Now!”
Warren Consolidated Schools principal Robert Livernois said last month after Dillon stopped the bus, two “good Samaritans” came to help the bus driver and get the students out of the vehicle.
Asked how Dillon knew what to do during a press conference the day after the incident, Reeves told reporters that 13-year-old Dillon had previously driven a golf cart when the family had been to campsites and with his father in the passenger seat that Have practiced driving for a few years.
“He could probably drive one of the cars out here and he’d be fine,” Reeves said during the press conference. “I promise you that.”
Dillon told his parents after the incident that he watched the bus driver at work every school day.
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“I just knew what to do in that moment,” Dillon told CBS. “The bus went off the road.”
In the weeks since, Dillon has received praise from the school district. Earlier this month, the school board presented him with a certificate of appreciation, ClickOnDetroit.com reported. He received a tribute from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and a state seal from State Senator Paul Wojno.
Last week, Dillon was also given a key to the town of Warren by Mayor James Fouts.
The incident received media coverage across the country, with viewers praising Dillon’s bravery and quick thinking.
Steve Hartman, the host of CBS Traveling In the station’s broadcast about Dillon, the show said that “virtually every kid” who rode the bus had a device.
But Dillon wasn’t. He doesn’t even have a cellphone, Reeves told CBS. He and his wife plan to hold off on getting a Dillon for the time being.
“It’s a very powerful lesson, maybe a kind of lesson on how to change the world,” Reeves said.
When Hartman asked Dillon what he thought of it, he said: “Whatever. My parents are old-fashioned.”
“But for good reason,” Hartman said.
“I guess,” Dillon replied.
https://torontosun.com/news/world/he-didnt-have-a-phone-so-he-noticed-when-the-bus-driver-fainted He didn’t have a phone. He realized that when the bus driver passed out.
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