Kid Hero Speaks Out After His 'Swift Actions' Prevent School Bus Crash: 'Look Out for Each Other'
Without 13-year-old Dillon Reeves' bravery, the situation "certainly would've been disastrous," says Warren, Mich. Mayor James R. Fouts
He doesn't have his driver's license yet, but that didn't stop a Warren, Mich., teen from grabbing the steering wheel and preventing a wreck when his bus driver lost consciousness.
Dillon Reeves, 13, was sitting in the fourth row of Bus No. 46 on Wednesday, April 27, talking with a classmate after school when he looked out the window and noticed the vehicle was "swerving," he tells PEOPLE.
He looked at the bus driver and saw her head drop forward with her eyes closed. "She didn't even have her hands on the steering wheel or the gas pedal," Dillon says. "It just didn't seem right."
Noticing that the bus was about to go over a curb and onto a lawn, Dillon got up, turned the wheel to avoid hitting another car at the intersection, and gently pumped the air brakes. His brave actions brought the bus — which was carrying about 60 middle school children — to a complete stop.
"It certainly would've been disastrous," said Warren Mayor James R. Fouts.
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Next, Dillon told the kids who were filming him to call for help. "It was chaotic," he says.
When his peers said they couldn't because they were making a video, he got upset. "If you can film, you can call 911!" Dillon, who doesn't have a cell phone yet, recalls saying.
"It frustrated me so bad," Dillon adds. "They just needed to be mature and do what's right."
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Dillon, who lives about 15 minutes from Lois E. Carter Middle School, said the bus was about two blocks from his stop when the driver passed out.
Although his experience behind the wheel is minimal — he's driven GoKarts, a golf cart, and a car in a parking lot — he knew how to pump the brakes by paying attention to the bus driver, with whom he's developed a friendship.
He also enjoys watching YouTube videos of first responders rescuing people. "I think watching those videos was probably training for him," his stepmother, Ireta Reeves, says.
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When she came home from work early that day, Ireta was surprised to see a different bus pull up to Dillon's stop. She watched as kids exited and walked in a different direction than usual.
After driving up to the corner to see what was going on, she didn't see her stepson, but she did see an ambulance, a fire truck and a half dozen police cars. "I was shaking," says the 45-year-old community nurse.
She called her husband and asked if Dillon was home yet. Steve Reeves, a 47-year-old health and safety supervisor, was in the kitchen making Swedish meatballs for dinner at the time.
"I said, 'Something's wrong. There's an accident up here. Something bad happened. There's police everywhere, something's wrong,'" she recalls saying.
While they were talking, Steve's work phone rang. When he answered, a police officer told him, "Your son's a hero.'"
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Ireta found the officer and her stepson in the parking lot.
"I gave him a giant hug. I squeezed him so tight," she remembers. "The principal came up and was like, 'Do you know what he did?.... He stopped the bus from getting in an accident. He saved everybody!'"
That evening, Dillon went to both the police station and the fire station to thank the first responders "for helping out with the scene," he says.
And Dillon, his family says, was modest. "He's like, 'All I did was stop the bus,'" adds Ireta.
The teen has also been in contact with the bus driver, who is back home and "doing well," although she won't be able to return to her route for six months.
"I'm so thankful Dillon was on the bus that day," the driver said in a text message to the boy's stepmother.
"His swift actions saved lives and property and he deserves all the attention for his bravery. He was asking a few months back about being a bus driver, how old did you have to be and if it was hard," the message continued. "He thought he might want to be a bus driver one day. It's a great job. I love it. But I hope Dillon can see his potential to be so much more."
Dillon, who was worried about his friend, said he felt relieved that he was able to talk to her. "She said that she's proud of me," he says.
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Although Dillon regrets not pulling the bus over and parallel parking it so traffic could flow, his parents and community think he did a great job.
"We're very proud of him," his dad, Steve Reeves, says. "He has a very kind heart. He's always trying to help people out."
"We want to encourage young people: if you see something, not only say something, but do something," says Mayor Fouts. "By acting quickly, he saved lives and I think forever changed his life."
Indeed, as the nation has learned about Dillon's bravery, random strangers have reached out about wanting to help him, even mailing checks to the family, his parents say. So they've opened a bank account and started a GoFundMe, with all cash going towards supporting the boy's goal of becoming a first responder one day.
As for a final piece of advice, Dillon, who was recently accepted into the Warren Police Department's Junior Detective's program, says to "look out for each other."
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