10-Year-Old Boy Called Hero After Florida Bus Crash

A 10-year-old boy is being hailed a hero for his actions after a school bus crashed into a pond near Tampa and overturned.

The Tampa Bay Times reports fifth grader Nicholas Sierra got a kindergartener safely out of the partly submerged bus on Thursday afternoon. The safety patroller at Mary E. Bryant Elementary School then went back onto the bus and brought out two more students, a first grader and second grader.

"It wouldn't be fair if they died and I lived," Sierra told the newspaper.

Three Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputies arrived and made sure all 27 students made it out of the bus. Deputies say only one child was treated for minor injuries.

It's unclear why the bus driver veered off the road and into a pond. Sheriff's deputies are investigating. He has been suspended with pay while school officials investigate. ABC News reports the driver, who witnesses said stayed on the bus until all the kids were off, has said he believes the brakes failed.

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