A quick-thinking assistant avoided potential tragedy on Sunday when the driver of a bus carrying the Dubuque women’s basketball team passed out at the wheel.
Returning from a tournament in Nashville, Tenn., the team was shaken awake as the bus hit a guard rail at about 70 mph.
Justin Smith, an assistant coach for the team, jumped from his seat and crammed next to the driver to hit the brakes and ease the bus off the road.
The driver had a “medical emergency” and passed out along I-24, according to Trigg County Sheriff’s Department in Kentucky.
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“I just kind of bounced up and did probably what any single person would have done when they see that and jumped up, grab the wheel, and hit the brakes and tried to get the bus off the interstate as fast as possible,” Smith said of his heroics, per the local ABC affiliate, KCRG-TV9.
“I think my head slammed against the window and we hit the guardrail and I looked at the driver, and I could tell he was unresponsive, and just jumped up and grabbed the wheel.”
The team’s head coach, Mark Noll, recalled the incident, saying “I’m not gonna lie, I was shook; and I wasn’t sure if I was sleeping or what was going on.”
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It’s a stroke of luck that Smith was there to take the wheel. He’d been a coach in the Dubuque area for the last 10 years, but is in his first season as an assistant with the university.
“I’ve watched Coach Smith for about 10-plus years and when our position opened up as an assistant coach he was the first one I went after. He was the one that I wanted to hire for that position, because I’ve already seen the kind of person that he is,” Noll said.
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