A 56-year-old school bus driver in Alfred, New York, terrified young students while driving the bus drunk. Luckily, two teenage passengers came to the rescue. INSIDE EDITION has more.
A terrifying school bus ride in Alfred, New York, was caught on tape. The driver was drunk and the bus was swerving out of control at 70 miles an hour. Two heroic teenagers came to the rescue.
15-year-old Grace Scherzer took charge and confronted the drunk driver.
"Stop! You gotta stop, ok? You gotta stop!" she told the driver
Her friend Chelsea Pierce comforted the younger kids, who were terrified.
"You're making the making little kids cry!" yelled Pierce.
The frightening ordeal was caught on the bus's surveillance camera. The girls, along with Grace's mom, spoke about the harrowing ordeal on The Early Show.
"I was absolutely terrified but I tried to remain calm for the kids," Grace admitted.
After the drunk driver passed the turn, Grace stepped in and tried to keep everyone calm. The driver then began arguing with the high school freshman.
"Will you guys stop!" she yelled at them.
"Well, you're not okay and I know it," a distressed Grace told the driver.
"I went up to talk to her and asked her how she was and if she was fine to drive, and she didn't respond to me and she said after a couple of times asking her that she was fine," said Grace on The Early Show.
The girls got the driver to finally stop, and Grace decided the only thing to do was get everyone off the bus.
"The bus driver was trying to keep all the kids on the bus and have them still stay on the bus," explained Grace.
The kids went out the rear exit as the driver screamed at them.
Now the former school bus driver, 56-year-old Martha Thompson, was sentenced to 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to drunk driving. She was also sentenced to six months of electronic home monitoring, counseling, five years probation, and was fined $1,000.
The wild ride could easily have turned tragic if the two brave teenagers hadn't stepped in.
