Jeremy Hernandez

It was rush hour, 5:45PM Wednesday August 1st 2007. Everyone was in a hurry to get home from a long day of work and enjoy the rest of their evening. People cussing and cutting each other off to beat rush hour before it got even worse than it already was. But what became unbelievably worse was the 35W Bridge that collapsed below all the cars on top of it into the Mississippi River. As for most people hope was too late, but for some they had to run away or drive away.

20 year old Jeremy Hernandez was on a bus that was going over the 35W Bridge, the bus driver was going about 10 miles per hour at the time. Jeremy, 9 other adults and over 50 students were coming back from swimming, it was a summer camp field trip. Jeremy is a gym staff member at a summer camp. He was taking a nap, as most would after spending the day with over 50 loud and energized kids.

The bridge was collapsing and the bus was stopped at a weird angle. The school bus was right in the area of where the bridge curved down from the collapse. The school bus was balancing back in forth, from almost falling into the Mississippi River and the bridge. The kids started screaming Jeremy woke up, and vigorously found a safe place for children to escape out of the bus. They all lined up in the bus, and one by one Hernandez helped all the children out. Random people went up to Jeremy to grab the kids from his hands, to help him out so the kids could get out of the bus and into a safer place faster. He said a lot of the kids didn’t want to let go of him, until they saw their parents and ran to them. Everyone was petrified of possibly falling into the river and dying. Jeremy got everyone safely out of the school bus; some kids had a few injuries, but nothing life threatening.

Jeremy today is considered a hero, but before this day he was enrolled at Dunwoody College in Minneapolis Minnesota. He found out that he couldn’t afford his tuition to become an automobile mechanic. He dropped out and got a job as a camp counselor at a summer camp and to go from there on what to do with the rest of his life. If it wasn’t for Hernandez those kids and parents could have been seriously injured or worse, killed. After the heroic story about Jeremy went on, Dunwoody’s phones were ringing off the hooks, people demanding that Jeremy gets his tuition fees and book fees free. So this day was not only a very stressful and a dramatic day, it changed his life in a good way. Jeremy now doesn’t have to worry about not being able to afford college. Not only are all those kids thankful for Jeremy, so are their families. There is no excuse to why this tragedy should have happened, none whatsoever. People that survived this collapse or that witnessed it falling, I am sure are terrified to drive over bridges, I know I am.

Jeremy is just one person; he is one man that changed the lives of many people. Jeremy stepping up and putting the children’s lives before his own showed that he has a heart, and in that heart is a lot of love that he is willing to spread around to others. Saving all the kids proves that there are people out there that are brave, caring, and heroic people in this world. When CNN was interviewing Jeremy, he told them children on that school bus are a part of him, like his brothers and sisters. If we had more people in the world as brave, heart full, and caring as Jeremy Hernandez was on this faithful afternoon we have it made.