Super says students and transportation staff ‘avert tragedy’
The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Lauded as heroes, members of the Guilderland transportation department hear praise at Tuesday’s school board meeting for the drills they run at each school, which prepared a high school student to intervene when his bus driver was taken ill and could not control the bus. From left are Michael Gannon, assistant transportation supervisor; Danielle Poirier, transportation supervisor; dispatcher Ellen Dorato; and Patricia Carroll.
GUILDERLAND — “People who averted a tragedy,” as the superintendent put it, were honored at Tuesday’s school board meeting.
On Friday, Jan. 22, Shawn Beurker, a junior at Guilderland High School, knew something was wrong as his school bus meandered on Williamsburg Drive in a quiet suburban neighborhood off of Fuller Station Road in northeastern Guilderland.
“The driver suddenly fell ill,” Superintendent Marie Wiles told The Enterprise earlier. “He drove over a lawn and swerved into a mailbox and was meandering from lane to lane on the road.”
Beurker went to the front of the bus. “He asked the driver if he was OK and said, ‘You need to stop the bus.’ He put on the emergency brake and called the dispatcher.”
The dispatcher, Ellen Dorato, cleared the radio of all other communication. “She was very calm and talked Shawn through it,” said Wiles.
Another of the 14 passengers on the bus, Ashley Celebucki, called 9-1-1 and kept other students calm, said Wiles.
“Help came very quickly,” Wiles said.
She said, too, that staff from the transportation department visit every school in the district — there are five elementary schools as well as a middle school and a high school — three times a year to have bus drills, practicing for just such an emergency.
The bus driver, whose name the district is not releasing, is “going to be OK,” said Wiles, due in part to “speedy treatment.”
“He’s not driving right now,” Wiles said. “Time needs to elapse.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, Wiles said how moved she was to see a video of unfolding events taken by the bus camera, calling the response “calm, measured, and careful.”
Although the students were not at the meeting, Wiles said she had insisted that transportation staff — who “came here kicking and screaming” — attend to be recognized.
She lauded transportation Supervisor Danielle Poirier for “hiring and nurturing great people,” and also recognized the assistant director, Mike Gannon; dispatcher Donato; and Patricia Carroll.
Board member Judy Slack acknowledged that holding all the school drills must be tedious although necessary work.
“That was the silver lining,” said Carroll.
