{"id":794227,"date":"2019-03-27T11:04:44","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T17:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=363576"},"modified":"2019-03-27T11:04:44","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T17:04:44","slug":"steamboat-school-bus-driver-crashes-goes-into-cardiac-arrest-with-students-on-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/steamboat-school-bus-driver-crashes-goes-into-cardiac-arrest-with-students-on-board\/","title":{"rendered":"Steamboat school bus driver crashes, goes into cardiac arrest with students on board"},"content":{"rendered":"
Steamboat Springs School District buses drive along Amethyst Drive. A driver for the district was flown to a hospital in Loveland on Monday after rear-ending a car, then going into cardiac arrest.<\/strong>
John F. Russell \/ Steamboat Pilot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS \u2014 A bus driver from Steamboat Springs School District crashed into a car, then went into cardiac arrest while taking kids home Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Steamboat Springs Fire Rescue firefighters received a call at 3:45 p.m. Monday about a motor vehicle crash at Pine and Third streets involving a man needing CPR.<\/p>\n

The driver \u2014 whose route serves neighborhoods in West Acres, Soda Creek and Downhill Drive \u2014 rear-ended another vehicle before collapsing, according to Steamboat Deputy Fire Chief Chuck Cerasoli.<\/p>\n

Neither law enforcement nor school officials would release the driver\u2019s name until they had spoken with his family.<\/p>\n

A bystander who saw the crash performed CPR until first responders arrived on scene. That bystander was Rob Harvey, a local construction worker who was on his way back from Steamboat Springs Middle School after signing up his daughter for the track team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was behind the bus when it hit the car,\u201d Harvey said.<\/p>\n

He described how the bus continued to slowly roll forward after the accident, as if the driver had his foot off the break.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was confused what was going on,\u201d Harvey said. \u201cI worried that something might be wrong with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, Harvey had attended a memorial for Chris Hahn, a beloved father and longtime resident who died March 19<\/a> from an aortic aneurism while filming his son\u2019s lacrosse game. That recent tragedy was on Harvey\u2019s mind and helped spur him to action.<\/p>\n

He immediately pulled over, put on his hazard lights and checked on the people whose car had been hit. Harvey said two girls, who appeared to be high school students, got out of the car and appeared OK. Next, he checked on the bus driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked at him, and he seemed fine,\u201d Harvey said.<\/p>\n

The driver was lucid enough to get out of the bus and notify school district officials of the crash. Meanwhile, Harvey checked on the children inside the bus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids were kind of going crazy,\u201d he said. \u201cOne kid was trying to get in the driver\u2019s seat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harvey attempted to calm them down, but the driver collapsed seconds later.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was lying in the gutter in the water,\u201d said Harvey, who quickly pulled him out and to the side of the bus.<\/p>\n

Harvey checked the driver\u2019s vitals. The man wasn\u2019t breathing and didn\u2019t have a pulse. Harvey, who had taken a CPR course years ago, began to perform chest compressions. He tried to do mouth to mouth, but the driver\u2019s throat filled with blood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept looking around to see if there was anyone more qualified than me, but no one was stopping,\u201d Harvey said.<\/p>\n

Within minutes, an officer from the Steamboat Springs Police Department arrived and took over CPR.<\/p>\n

Harvey switched his attention to the young eyes peering from the bus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just held my jacket up so the kids couldn\u2019t see the guy anymore,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cerasoli arrived soon after in a fire truck, followed by an ambulance. He helped paramedics conduct emergency defibrillation on the bus driver and transport him to the hospital.<\/p>\n

On the way, first responders also utilized a new, automated CPR device. Though it is currently in the demo stages, Cerasoli said it has allowed emergency responders to spend less time personally performing CPR and provide more efficient care to patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat device has been very helpful for us in recent cases,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The bus driver arrived to the hospital alive but in serious condition, according to Cerasoli. He was then flown to a facility in Loveland.<\/p>\n

As of Tuesday, neither law enforcement nor school district officials knew his current condition.<\/p>\n

Cerasoli added that Harvey\u2019s quick aid was instrumental in keeping the driver alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving someone do CPR right away is one of the best life-saving tools,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

School district officials notified parents about the incident Monday night. The email explained a bus had been involved in a crash and no students were injured.<\/p>\n

It advised families, \u201cIf your child was on this bus and was affected by the incident, please reach out to your principal and your building counselor for assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brad Meeks, the district\u2019s superintendent, added that counselors were available to speak with upset students Tuesday morning. He applauded Harvey\u2019s efforts as well as those of several high school students on the bus who calmed down the younger children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a lot of good Samaritans helping out,\u201d Meeks said. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing what people will do in extraordinary circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

To reach Derek Maiolo, call 970-871-4247, email dmaiolo@SteamboatPilot.com<\/a> or follow him on Twitter @derek_maiolo.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steamboat Springs School District buses drive along Amethyst Drive. A driver for the district was flown to a hospital in Loveland on Monday after rear-ending a car, then going into cardiac arrest.John F. Russell \/ Steamboat Pilot STEAMBOAT SPRINGS \u2014 A bus driver from Steamboat Springs School District crashed into a car, then went into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-794227","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 02:11:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}