▶ Watch Video: How “Grey’s Anatomy” helped a quick-thinking hero halt a runaway school bus
A quick-thinking man who came to the rescue of the students and driver aboard a runaway school bus in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on Monday afternoon credited the television series “Grey’s Anatomy” for inspiring his actions.
Ebro Ahmed, 27, told CBS News that he leaped into action after noticing the Battle Creek Middle School bus rolling down the street at about 10 mph with its doors wide open and its lights flashing.
Ahmed said it caught his attention because the lights of a school bus normally don’t flash unless it is at a complete stop.
“When he drove past me, it really shook me,” Ahmed told CBS News Wednesday. “I was like, ‘What is going on?'”
As captured on nearby security cameras, Ahmed, who works at a nearby store, sprinted from the sidewalk and jumped onto the moving bus.
“I saw the bus driver obviously having a medical emergency,” Ahmed said. “All I looked at was the gear control and I was trying to put it into park.”
Ahmed, who told CBS News he had never been behind the wheel of a bus before, said he briefly got confused between the reverse and park selections on the gear shift and accidentally put the bus into reverse.
“I started hearing beeps and we were going backwards,” Ahmed explained. “And then I said, ‘That is not right,’ and I threw it into neutral and pulled the [parking] brake.”
He went on: “When I looked behind me, I saw all of the kids kind of a little scared, crying with their phones out getting ready to call the police.”
Saint Paul Public Schools said there were 19 students aboard the bus at the time. None of them were hurt in the incident. The district did not provide information on the condition of the driver.
“After everything, he was coming to, but he’s still kind of out of it,” Ahmed said of the driver. “And so I just let him be. Even when the police came, he was already done having his medical emergency. He was getting a little bit better, but I just didn’t want to rush and start asking him questions.”
Ahmed doesn’t have any medical experience, but he does credit his favorite TV show, “Grey’s Anatomy,” for inspiring him.
“In ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ you never see doctors panic. I know it is all acting and stuff, so I just knew to be calm and just think everything through,” Ahmed said.
The district said a second bus eventually came to pick up the students and continue the route.
Asked if he feels like a hero, Ahmed responded, “I feel like any person in my situation would have done the same thing.”
