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Bus driver hailed a hero after stopping vehicle to coax suicidal woman off bridge

Darnell Barton was carrying a full load of high school students when he approached the Scajaquada Expressway overpass in Buffalo, New York

Bus driver hailed a hero after stopping vehicle to coax suicidal woman off bridge

A school bus driver has been hailed a hero after stopping his vehicle to talk a suicidal woman off the edge of a bridge.

Darnell Barton was carrying a full load of high school students when he approached the Scajaquada Expressway overpass in Buffalo, New York.

He spotted a woman on the opposite of a hand rail, leaning out over the traffic underneath, as if she was about to plunge to her death.

Barton stopped the bus, asked the woman if she was OK, before stepping out and coaxing her away from danger.

Within a few seconds he was able to help the unidentified woman back over the barrier to safety - as his students on the bus all broke into a round of applause.

The hero bus driver said: 'I didn’t think it was real with everything else going on around her.

'Traffic was proceeding as normal and a couple of pedestrians walked right by her and a bicyclist rode by. I mean, they were inches from her.

'She turned back to look at me and then back at the traffic and that’s when I kind of lunged and got my left arm around her body.

'I asked her, "Do you want to come on this side of the guard rail now?" and that was the first time she spoke to me and said, "Yeah."'


Within a few minutes, emergency service personnel had arrived on the scene. Another bus came to take away the students. Barton received a standing ovation from his students and praise from the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority.

After the brave intervention, he went back to finishing his bus route.