Apple Valley Man Awarded for Saving Passengers on Out-of-Control Bus

An Apple Valley man received an award from police for his quick thinking during a situation in July where a school bus full of passengers nearly careened off a highway.

Tim Taormina, 24, received the Commendation Award from the Eden Prairie Police Department at Tuesday's Eden Prairie City Council meeting for steering an out-of-control bus to safety, sparing all passengers of injury, according to a story from the Eden Prairie News.

Taormina was one of five people chaperoning a group of 62 kids from St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Savage on July 20, when the driver of the school bus taking them all to a volunteer activity collapsed, the story said.

The bus went off the highway and was grinding against a guard rail, and one parent yelled that nobody was driving, according to the story. Taormina, who had been sitting behind the driver, took the wheel and steered and stopped the bus in a grassy area off a highway exit.

The story said it was later determined that the driver had had a heart attack and died.

Read more from Taormina and others about the incident and the heroics in the Eden Prairie News story.