A heroic teenager stopped a runaway bus full of students from crashing into a gas station in Australia in a daring act caught on video.
Izzy Miller, 14, said she saw the bus was starting to inch toward the Liberty gas station and mini-mart in Casino, New South Wales, and noticed there was nobody in the driver’s seat.
“I looked over to talk to my friend, turned back over for like two seconds and the bus started moving,” she recounted to Australia’s ABC News. “And there was no one at the steering wheel.”
“It was heading near the petrol tank and no one was doing anything, so I jumped up, got into action, and steered away.”
She said her first thoughts were about the children on board.
“If I didn’t do anything about it, something really bad could have happened to the kids,” she said.
Miller then jumped into the driver’s seat and pressed down on one of the pedals to determine if it was the brake.
“And then I’m like, ‘OK, it stopped and I pressed it again and [the bus] actually stopped.”
Security footage shows the bus starting to cross a two-lane highway and heading straight for the gas station and mini-mart.
Izzy could be seen running after the vehicle and hanging onto its rear-view window before jumping into the vehicle.
Others chase after the bus, carrying about 20 students, which eventually veers away from the pumps and comes to a stop.
Gas station owner Erin Witton said Izzy sprang into action just in time, as a man was pumping gas into his car at the time.
“If that bus had hit the [tanker], worse case it would have blown,” she said.
Witton later presented Izzy with a Certificate of Appreciation and a reward for her bravery.
“All the team at North Casino Mini Mart are in debt and just super thankful for this beautiful young lady,” she wrote in a Facebook post.
Izzy’s mother, Rebecca Miller, also said the community was praising her daughter.
“The [school] principal said that if Izzy hadn’t acted the way she did that day, he would have been making some very different phone calls,” she said.
The Richmond Police District is now investigating the incident.
