{"id":38535,"date":"2025-02-15T02:53:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-15T08:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=38535"},"modified":"2025-02-15T00:21:42","modified_gmt":"2025-02-15T06:21:42","slug":"bus-driver-speaks-out-after-getting-hit-by-flying-metal-while-driving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=38535","title":{"rendered":"Bus driver speaks out after getting hit by flying metal while driving"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A bus driver is speaking out<\/a> after getting hit by a piece of flying metal while on the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stewart O’Leary, a Washington state bus driver, was struck by a piece of metal while he was driving a school bus at more than 60 mph along Interstate 405 last Friday. He was driving a high school girls’ basketball team to a game at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’m glad it was me, not them, any of my passengers,” O’Leary told Seattle ABC affiliate KOMO<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I kept the girls safe. That’s what the job of a bus driver is — transporting students safely — and I did that,” he said.<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The piece of metal tore through the bus’ windshield before it struck O’Leary in the chest. In a video released by the Northshore School District, O’Leary can be seen yelling out, “Oh, God!” when the metal hits him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But despite the sudden pain, O’Leary kept his cool behind the wheel and two of the team’s coaches rushed over to assist O’Leary when they heard him yell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As soon as I heard the screams, then I looked up to check on the driver,” coach Chris Pinder of the North Creek High School’s girls’ junior varsity basketball team recalled.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the video, Pinder can be heard telling O’Leary, “OK, hit the breaks, hit the breaks. Get the flashers on and hit the breaks.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coach Calvin McHenry, the head basketball coach, also jumped into action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I grabbed the wheel ’cause he was grabbing his heart, his chest a little bit,” McHenry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Pinder called 911, asking for both “fire and medical” services, O’Leary was able to pull the bus over to the highway’s shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After emergency medical services arrived, O’Leary was transported to a local hospital and treated for a serious bruise to his chest and cuts he sustained from flying glass shards that hit his face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cracked windshield is now on display at the school district’s bus office and O’Leary was given the flying piece of metal, which he said he plans on keeping as a reminder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coaches praised O’Leary, who has already returned to work less than a week after the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s just remarkable that he was able to keep the bus going straight after such a sudden event occurring. So a really, really great guy,” Pinder said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities are still trying to determine what the flying piece of metal is and where it originated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

A bus driver is speaking out after getting hit by a piece of flying metal while on the job. Stewart O’Leary, a Washington state bus driver, was struck by a piece of metal while he was driving a school bus at more than 60 mph along Interstate 405 last Friday. He was driving a high school girls’ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":38536,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[2234,1996,2537],"class_list":["post-38535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-bus","tag-driver","tag-metal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38537,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38535\/revisions\/38537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}