Their school bus driver had a heart attack — how Texas students averted disaster

Gerald Gardner “loved every kid on the school bus,” his wife told KTRK.

The 73-year-old had driven a Sealy ISD bus for 11 years, and pledged to his daughter before the current school year that he “wasn’t going to miss a day of work, because he wanted to be there,” she told the station.

But on Thursday, with a bus full of students approaching Highway 90 in the southeast Texas town, the students’ ride home took a frightening turn.

Gardner passed out at the wheel before the turn onto the highway after picking students up from Sealy Junior High, according to a news release from Sealy ISD. He had suffered a heart attack, KTRK reported.

His seatbelt was still around his waist as he slumped over the wheel, according to KHOU, and the bus began to roll onto the highway.

That’s when a small group of students from Sealy High and the junior high school took matters into their own hands, district officials said in the news release.

They applied the brakes to stop the bus and led a quick evacuation, KHOU reported, while three “Good Samaritans” carried Gardner off the bus and started CPR, the release states.

Neither the students, nor the members of the public who started CPR have been identified.

Firefighters and paramedics arrived minutes later, but they could not resuscitate Gardner, KHOU reported. He died at the scene.

“We are extremely grateful to the years of service Mr. Gardner gave to Sealy ISD and to our students,” district officials said in the news release. “Our hearts, thoughts, and prayers go out to the Gardner family at this time.

“Our students are to be commended for their quick thinking and remaining calm during the evacuation.”

This story was originally published September 8, 2018 at 11:49 AM with the headline "Their school bus driver had a heart attack — how Texas students averted disaster."