Family Proud of 12-Year-Old Hero

A 12-year-old Nashport Elementary Sixth Grader is being called a hero for his actions Wednesday following the bus crash on State Route 60.

Shae Burkhart helped to get his fellow classmates off of the crippled bus. His father Kent says Shae was listening to his head phones when he felt the bus start to roll.

"He thought it was a nightmare and then all of the sudden he came to and he says most of the students were rushing to the front to try to get of the bus and he knew that the condition of the bus in the front was not good and he turned around and said he tried to undo it by hand and said he couldn’t and he said he just kept kicking it until the door came open," says Kent.

After getting the students to a safe area Shae went back onto the bus to stay with his 6-year-old cousin Drew Burkhart who was trapped. Shae then called his dad to tell him about the accident.

"I said are you okay and he says I’m fine and then he kind of broke down a little bit, but he’s says the people are not. There’s a couple in there that’s not so good and Drew’s still on the bus and he’s stuck and I can’t get him out," says Kent Brukhart.

Burkhart says he’s proud of the way his son reacted, and his heart goes out to the King family. Drew Burkhart is still in Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus with injuries to his arm.

Burkhart says bus driver says he has no hard feelings toward bus driver Carol Oler. He says Oler’s driven his son and daughter on the bus for some time and he’s always seen her be very safety conscious.