By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
A Boone County school bus carrying students to Cooper High School crashed at the corner of Hanover Boulevard and Collier Lane this week. Two ‘heroic’ and quick-thinking students averted a bigger disaster.
The bus driver, ‘Coach’ Harold Crump, had a medical heart incident and when sheriff deputies arrived on the scene, he was in full cardiac arrest.
Three students were taken to area hospitals with non-life threatening injuries.
But there is more to the story.
The bus driver, ‘Coach’ Harold Crump, had been driving for the county for about 1½ years, and the students really like him.
“He came to us from the south, where he was an educator and coach, and he is very popular with the students,” said Cooper Principal Mike Wilson.
On Wednesday morning there were 15 students on board the bus just before 6:30 a.m., students from freshman, sophomore, junior and senior classes. Things were pretty much normal.
Until they weren’t.
On the way to school, many of the students were dozing or asleep, but junior Micah Jones and sophomore Karter Dearwester were sitting in the front row of the bus and — luckily — Dearwester was awake.
Suddenly, Dearwester thought the bus was too close to a mailbox, and he looked at Coach, to find that he was slumped over the wheel. He woke Jones up, just as the bus crossed the intersection and crashed into a stand of trees in the backyard of a house on Sherwood Court.
Jones regained his balance and reached over and put on the emergency brake and took the keys out of the ignition.
Jones’ grandfather had always told him that in an emergency situation, he had to remain calm and fight through the panic.
He checked the driver’s pulse and tried to assess his condition.
Meanwhile, Dearwester was calling 911, and trying to calm the students, some of whom
were screaming. Since the front of the bus was in the trees, he helped get the back door open and tried to get the students out.
Three students were sent to area hospitals, but the rest of the students seemed okay,
although scared.
“These boys reacted like heroes, but they are very humble and don’t want a lot of attention.” said Wilson. “Micah made sure the bus was securely stopped, then made sure the unconscious driver was secure in his seat, and wasn’t falling out of his seat. Karter called 911 and helped the students get out the back of the bus. Both of them say they aren’t heroes; that they would do the same thing for anybody.”
Wilson said the driver, Crump, was in full cardiac arrest, and when officers arrived three minutes after the crash, they started CPR. He was taken to the hospital but Wilson said he is now in stable condition.