Courtesy: Jerry Holt
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35W bridge collapse: Bus heroes honored
When the images of the 35W bridge collapse first appeared on television, one picture scared all of us. A school bus was caught amid the wreckage and 52 children were on board. "It's something you can't prepare for," Kim Dahl, the driver of the First Student school bus said Wednesday All of the children made it off of that bus. The were saved for some reasons we don't know ... and for some reasons we can introduce you to. "I don't feel like a hero, you know, what I did is what anybody would have done," Dahl said. Kim Dahl ? a bus driver for 10 years ? was driving as the bus fell more than 30 feet. She did her part. "Kim Dahl, our bus driver still had her hands on the wheel," company vice president Jeff Pearson said. "Her foot on the brake and with extensive injuries lifted her left leg to apply the parking break so that bus didn't move another inch." Jeremy Hernandez, a volunteer with the youth on the bus, did his part too. He pried open the bus' back door and carried kids out one by one ? handing them to a stranger who was driving his truck near the bus at the time of the collapse. That stranger was Gary Babineau and he did his part. "When you hear 50 some kids screaming, you can't run the other way," Babineu said. Wednesday, Dahl who is still suffering from compressed vertebrae, Jeremy and Gary were honored by the bus company. Each was given $5,000 and a heartfelt thank you. "We are here today to celebrate the heroism, courage and determination that these individuals displayed," Pearson said at the awards ceremony. For Kim it's hard to erase what might have been. "Just 50 feet back and we could have been in the river," she said. For Jeremy words were hard to find. And for Gary, today he is expecting his first child which is the last thing he remembers thinking about when the bridge came out from under him. "That's what I was thinking about when I was falling. I'm going to miss this."
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