Driver Dies, Teen Saves Bus Full of Kids

Everything seemed fine after bowling with the Magic Carpet Summer Camp. Until they got in the bus, when 59 year old Ramone Salvador Fernandez fell off the driver’s seat of the bus.

"The bus driver, he fell over," says camper Sabrina Consigilia. Then 16 year old camp counselor Rachel Guzy stopped the bus by slamming on the foot pedal and pulling the emergency brake. "And our bus counselor just stopped the bus and everybody started screaming."

Fernandez has worked with the camp for 16 years. Fernandez's relatives mourned the sudden loss of a man they described as a devoted dad and fierce protector of kids. Fernandez, a married father from Valley Stream, L.I., with two adult children, had been a school bus driver for 15 years." relatives say. He apparently died from a heart-attack of natural causes.

"I said to Rachel this morning, out of darkness comes the light," camp owner David Tawill said. "His gift to you is that he left you in charge for a moment. You had three seconds to react, and you discovered. So even in his death, he gave you something."

The owners think that when he knew what was happening, he tried to throw himself off the seat so someone could save the kids.

Rachel said she knew what to do because she had “messed around with everything on the bus. I never knew it would pay off. I guess it pays to be curious."

Camp counselor Rachel Guzy was being hailed hero on Wednesday, August 19th.