TOPSHAM, Maine — Two teenagers who helped bring a runaway school bus to a stop and called for help have been invited to the New England Patriots season opener.
Team owner Robert Kraft delivered the invitation himself during a Zoom call with Connor and Seamus Collins, who stepped in when the bus driver suffered a fatal medical event on March 14 in Topsham, Maine.
“You guys are unbelievable,” Kraft said Tuesday. “My team told me what you did there. You guys really called an audible on that bus.”
In football, an audible is a last-second play change by the quarterback at the line of scrimmage.
The bus had 14 middle and high school students aboard. Connor, a 16-year-old student at Mount Ararat High School, is credited with steering the bus to a stop on an embankment. His brother Seamus, a 14-year-old student at Mount Ararat Middle School, dialed 911. Others helped by rendering aid and flagging down passing vehicles.
Topsham police Chief Marc Hagan credited the students for their “deliberate action to save lives.”
The 77-year-old driver died at a hospital, according to Maine School Administrative District 75.