'It Was a Miracle': Witness Comforts School Bus Driver after Seizure, Crash on Route 1

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, RI—A few small miracles added up on Route 1 in South Kingstown on Thursday when a school bus lost control and drove up a grassy hill after the driver suffered a seizure.

"I ran to it," said Bethany McGuire, who was in her car on the highway when she saw the bus go airborne. "I couldn't believe how fast I sprinted in flip flops.

"I didn't even think," she said. "Keeping [the driver] calm, her bus monitor and the four kids calm was the only thing I could do."

The sight of the bus driving off the highway was shocking and terrifying, McGuire said. The bus was traveling at highway speeds and veered off the road up an embankment at the curve of the jughandle right were a tall stone wall stands.

A group of people rushed to help as police and firefighters responded to the crash scene near the Indian Lake light and turnaround.

McGuire said as she ran up to the bus and helped spread the door open, all she kept thinking was "please don't let me see something I don't want to see."

What she did see was an unconscious driver and the monitor and children not seriously hurt. She stayed with the driver as North and South Kingstown firefighters arrived and began to treat patients. The driver had regained consciousness but was dazed and confused.

"I just kept asking her what her name was, and I told her mine," McGuire said.

People at the scene assumed she was a trained paramedic or nurse. She smiled and said she's a veterinary nurse and if "she was a German Shepherd dog I would have this all squared away," she said.

The incident happened after 2:30 p.m. and involved a bus owned by Ocean State Transit.

"It's a miracle that she didn't go into oncoming traffic. It's a miracle she didn't hit the stone wall. It's a miracle that the bus monitor realized that she wasn't conscious and kicked her foot off of the gas," McGuire said. "Or that it didn't flip. Kudos to all emergency personnel and good Samaritans that helped. We were a machine! The kids were okay, and the driver was coherent. Sometimes we are just in the right place at the right time. Please send some comforting thoughts their way."

Police did not have immediate details about the crash. A dispatcher said more information would likely be released later Thursday.

This story will be updated.

Photo courtesy: Mike Farley