Two heroic students in Ashland helped save a bus driver in distress Friday morning.
News 5 Photojournalist Mark Durdak sat down with siblings Catrina, 8, and her 14-year-old brother Charlie to discuss how the events unfolded.
In a video, Catrina is seen asking the bus driver if she was okay, to which the driver shakes her head "no."
"I ran up and said, 'What is wrong?' and she pointed at her throat, and then I ran back there and got the older kids," Catrina said.
Shortly after, the driver is seen shaking her head again, then moves to hold her radio up in the air for students on the bus to see.
"That's when I realized that something was going on," Charlie said.
"We were on a hill going downwards, so I like pulled the parking break out," Catrina said.
Another student in the video can be heard asking someone for help, then calling on Charlie specifically.
Charlie said he made his way up to the front, trying to figure out what was happening. He then uses the bus radio to call their school and ask for assistance.
"We need help," said Charlie as he explained where they were and what bus they were on. "Bus driver is not breathing."
News 5 asked him if he knew how to use the radio.
"Yeah, couple dukes or hacks in movies," Charlie said. "You just gotta be calm and do what needs to be done at the time.
After the call-out, Charlie is seen checking on the bus driver.
He told News 5 how it felt afterward.
"I was a little bit shakey and like, once I got settled down, it was scary. I was trying to keep the kids calm and make sure they don't get freaked out and try to get them to the back of the bus." Charlie said.
"My brother, he— like in the inside when something's going wrong he's scared but, on the outside, he's like calm and concentrated," Catrina said.
Tiffany Erwin, the mother of Catrina and Charlie, told News 5 what it meant to hear what her children had done.
"I was very proud," Erwin said. "Overwhelmed feeling of joy. Like I was joyful that my kids were knowledgeable enough and knew enough to know what to do to actually help somebody, legitimately save somebody's life."
Her children also feel good about their actions.
"(I feel) proud and happy with myself and happy that we got her all like better now," said Catrina. "And she needs to be with her family, that way they can cheer her up and give her hugs."
"I'm glad that she's home now and that she's safe," Charlie said.
News 5 reached out to the driver, who is now out of the hospital, but she did not want to be interviewed for this story.
However, she did tell the Crestview School superintendent that she makes it a point to teach students how to use the two-way radio in the bus, and is glad to know some of them were listening.
