MIAMI (WSVN) - Three students who stepped up to help their classmates during a chaotic and deadly crash are getting special recognition from the Miami Police Department.
The wreck involved a school bus filled with students and claimed one life.
Miami Police gave the students a special award for their actions.
In the collision, five cars piled up near the Palmetto Expressway, Nov. 9.
The school bus crashed after a pick-up truck struck and killed a pedestrian.
Emily Rodriguez, Melanie Garcia and Alejandro Quintero stepped up.
Quintero kept his classmates calm by breaking the tension.
“I started making jokes to get everybody, their mind, out of this,” he said.
Garcia told police about a man from another car who was bleeding from his head.
Police said Rodriguez helped to calm down her bus driver who was experiencing a panic attack.
All three students helped police gather the information they needed on the scene.
“Trying to take all the videos and pictures, and then there was an officer that came onto the bus, and he and Alex were helping take names, date of births,” Garcia said.
Miami Police Department’s Do the Right Thing program honored the Hialeah Middle School students for working up the courage and taking some initiative.
“Pretty awesome,” Rodrigues said.
“It feels great,” Garcia said. “I could never think that this is something that I were, like, to accomplish.”
The trio also received congratulatory letters from the superintendent and a host of other surprises.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.