Boy, 10, saves peers after school bus crashes into pond

MELISSA CHAN 2 hrs ago

New York Daily News

© Michael Majchrowicz/Tampa Bay Times Nicholas Sierra says he pulled kindergarteners from bus. ''It wouldn't be fair if they died, and I lived.'' .A Flipped school bus that crashed into a pond in Odessa, Fla., on…Dozens of children went home safe and sound after their school bus careened into a pond Thursday thanks to quick-thinking rescuers and a heroic 10-year-old boy.
All 27 students from Mary E. Bryant Elementary in Florida were scooped to safety as the yellow school bus they were in barreled into the pond, overturned on its side and started filling up with water, police and witnesses said.
It's still unclear what caused the vehicle to steer off course about 2:20 p.m. near Racetrack Rd. in Odessa, Fla.
The driver was about a mile away from the school when passenger Nicholas Sierra, 10, said the brakes began to fail.
"The bus was out of control and I looked at the brakes, and when he kept on stepping on them, they wouldn't work," Sierra told reporters Thursday. "And then it just started accelerating and everyone started screaming and crying."
The brave student sprang into action, saving his peers one by one.
"I grabbed a kindergartener's arms and put her around my neck and brought her to land, and then I went back," he told ABC News.
Meanwhile, first responders and some Good Samaritans also jumped into the murky water to aid the frantic rescue.
"I seen a kid, grabbed him, took him to the bank, seen another kid, grabbed him, took him to the bank," passerby Tom Batchilder told WFLA News Channel 8. "I probably grabbed a half dozen."
Batchilder, who works for a pavement company, said he and his partner Vinnie spread out to make sure the students were being saved from both ends of the submerged bus.
"My guy went over to the driver's side where the windshield was smashed out," he said. "He was taking kids from there bringing them in, and I was taking them from the back door exit and bringing them in."
One entire row of seats was already underwater at that point, he said.
All the students were accounted for and were not seriously injured, Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Debbie Carter told the Daily News.
One student had a small laceration to his right shoulder. They ranged in ages between 6 and 10 years old.
The driver also exited safely and remained on scene, Carter said.
"The kids were all safe. They're home tonight," Batchilder said. "They're getting hugs and kisses and nothing bad happened, so it was a good thing."
An independent mechanic is investigating the school bus to see what went wrong, Fox 35 Orlando reported.
Sierra said the vehicle suddenly veered right toward trees before slamming into the pond.
A nearby mother, waiting for her child to be dropped off, saw the crash and immediately sprinted to the scene.
"I couldn't run fast enough, Marlene Smith told Fox. "I just wanted to swim faster, and all I could hear all the voices and all I could think was, 'I have to get every kid off this bus.'"

mchan@nydailynews.com