A 17-year-old Hiawatha, Kansas, student received two awards this week for her actions after a school bus rollover in Brown County last year. 

As previously reported, on the morning of November 18, 2015, a school bus driver failed to stop the vehicle at an intersection about 10 miles south of Hiawatha. According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, the driver was attempting to turn onto the highway when the bus went off the road and rolled one time. 

Brown County Sheriff John Merchant said while the over 20 students in the bus were shook up by the rollover, 17-year-old Raven Zimmers kept her cool.

“This young lady, after the accident, she (went) through the bus, made sure everybody was off the bus, helped them off the bus, she even sustained injuries to herself, but without thinking of herself she went ahead and helped everybody else,” Merchant said.

According to Brown County Sheriff’s Office Public Resource Safety Officer J.D. Clary, the state of Kansas requires school districts to conduct bus evacuation drills twice a year. Clary said Zimmers remembered her training that day. 

“One of the things I always stressed to the older kids was – don’t forget the little people,” Clary said. “Because they’re going to be scared, they’re going to be confused and they’re going to be looking for somebody to cling to and I told them I wanted them to be that person. Obviously, Miss Zimmers did just that and there were a lot of elementary school age children on that bus.” 

Tuesday night, at the Hiawatha High School Spring Athletic Awards, Zimmers was awarded the Kansas Highway Patrol Honorary Trooper Award and the Brown County Sheriff’s Department Award for Valor. 

Clary said both awards are not given to just anyone and the Highway Patrol Award is an especially prestigious award. 

“You have to do something pretty amazing in order to be eligible to even be recommended to the superintendent for that award,” Clary said. “That’s something the superintendent and command staff do when someone is nominated – they go through the records, they review the accident report, they talk to the trooper involved and anyone else before they make their decision. That I know of, in the 27 years that I was a trooper, I’ve never known anyone younger than probably 25 ever receive that award. That kind of goes to show you just how amazing the things that Miss Zimmers did that day under all the stress.” 

In addition to Zimmers’ actions that day in November, Clary said emergency responders reacted to the situation smoothly. 

“We have what’s called a Squad 48,” Clary said. “That’s whenever there’s a bad injury accident or possible fatality – this crew goes out – they’ve got the Jaws of Life, all those things. We had first responders, we had ambulances from the Horton Hospital (and) Hiawatha Hospital… within 25 minutes, all the kids on the bus were being seen by physicians at either the Horton Community Hospital or the Hiawatha Hospital. I think that’s pretty good for a little community with less than 10,000 people in it to have first responders that are that good at what they do. They were prepared and they were able to answer the call when it came.” 

Clary and Sheriff Merchant both said between first responders, surrounding communities and Zimmers, they were able to make the best of a bad situation. 

“An amazing girl,” Clary said. “We’re very proud that she’s from Brown County.”