Aquinas College bus crash: Full story of heroic acts finally revealed as students honoured for their bravery

Three weeks after their school bus crashed when the driver had a heart attack the full story of what these students did next can finally be revealed, with police and paramedics heaping praise on their remarkable actions.

The bus that crashed in the accident. Picture: Nine Gold Coast News.

When Emma Kuveya starts driving lessons next year, she will appear just like any other teenager taking to the road for the first time.

But the Aquinas College student has been behind the wheel before, in circumstances that were not just remarkable, but truly heroic.

Emma was sitting behind the driver of her school bus on July 8 when he suffered a heart attack while driving along Southport Nerang Rd in Ashmore.

“I was taking the bus home and there’s an intersection where we normally go right, but instead of going right the bus driver went straight,” she said.

“ … I thought, ‘oh maybe we’re just taking the long route’, but then I realised we’re in the far right lane where you can’t go straight.

“We continued going straight and I realised the bus was sort of leaning towards the traffic light.

“I screamed at the bus driver, ‘what are you doing’, and we hit the traffic light.

“I don’t know what was going through my head, I just got up, got the steering wheel.

“We were about to swerve into the oncoming traffic, 10-15 cars coming over, so I just grabbed the steering wheel and swerved it over so we were standing straight.”

Aquinas College students Ella Murdoch, Courtney Bond, Daniel Knight and Emma Kuveya. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

Emma, who is in Year 10, was one of four students presented with bravery awards at the school on Tuesday for their heroic actions that day.

Also honoured was Year 12 student Daniel Knight, who came racing from the back of the bus to help.

“I was like on my knees and I grabbed the bus driver’s foot, taking it off the accelerator, while keeping one hand on the wheel, and quickly just got back up because obviously you can’t drive like that,” Emma said.

“And just pressing on the brake. But I couldn’t press the brake and drive at the same time.

“So a Year 12 ran from the back of the bus and helped me by braking while I was steering.”

Police at the scene of the crash. Picture: Nine Gold Coast News.

Emma said “anyone” in her situation would have done the same thing, but Queensland Ambulance Service Senior Operations Supervisor John Nolan and Acting Sergeant Shona Hartles from the police Forensic Crash Unit are not so sure.

“It was quite remarkable,” said Mr Nolan, who added that the swift action by Emma and her schoolmates had not only saved the 27 students who were on the bus and other road users from a potentially deadly accident, but most likely saved the life of the bus driver, with paramedics able to immediately focus on his heart condition without having to also deal with injuries from a crash.

Awards were also handed to all 27 children who were on the bus in recognition of their exemplary behaviour on the day. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

Critical to that response were the actions of two other students honoured for their bravery – Courtney Bond, who tended to the stricken driver and opened the doors of the bus as soon as it came to a halt, and Ella Murdoch, who quickly realised what was happening and phoned Triple 0.

“It was thanks to the actions of those students that we had such a positive outcome,” Acting Sgt Hartles said.

“The (potential) was there for it to have been a multi-casualty situation. It was peak hour traffic and a heavy use road. The fact that the actions of these students averted that is a wonderful outcome.

“It is astounding. They really, really did well.”

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