Bus driver called hero for saving girl’s life
Every school day, bus driver Sharonda Akins picks up the same group of Jupiter Farms Elementary students from their stop and drops them off at the end of the day. She has learned all their names and even plays Kidz Bop as she drives them.
But around 2:15 on May 15, Akins’ typical Tuesday took a scary turn. She was forced to act on instinct to help save a 6-year-old’s life.
Akins of West Palm Beach had just pulled her yellow school bus onto a “little rural street” and let a group of about 13 students off, including Lauren Queenan’s kindergarten daughter.
As the children made their way across, Akins said she noticed “this Ford Explorer type of car was not stopping,” and Queenan’s daughter was still in the road.
Akins honked her horn. The kindergartner picked up her pace. But the driver still wasn’t slowing down despite the flashing lights and extended stop sign.
Queenan of Jupiter watched from the bus stop with four or five other parents as her daughter tried to hustle across the street.
“I thought, ‘Oh, my God! The driver isn’t going to stop,’” she said. “I was standing there watching this all in shock. It could have been any of our children.”
Akins, who has been a bus driver for nine years, described the female driver of the car as “being in a daze.” She said the woman was twirling her hair and not paying attention.
“In these situations, we want to jump out of the bus and go save the kid, but we are strapped in our seat,” said Akins. “By the time we would get out of the bus, it would be too late.”
Akins did the only thing she could think of: lay on her horn. The blaring noise prompted the driver to slam on her brakes and stop maybe 10 feet in front of the kindergartner, according to Akins.
“If the bus driver didn’t alert the other driver, my daughter wouldn’t have made it,” said Queenan.
Now the Palm Beach County School District and parents are calling Akins a hero.
“I told Sharonda that we are ordinary people doing ordinary jobs, and sometimes extraordinary things happen,” said Jupiter Farms Elementary Principal Suzanne Matuella. “This was a wonderful story, and we couldn’t be prouder of her.”
Akins said she doesn’t feel like a hero, though, because this happens all the time, and it’s her job to get the students home safely.
“I see the students like they are my own kids. I worry about them,” said Akins, who has five children of her own. “I see them the same amount of time that I see my own kids. I am just really happy it worked out.”