Snowshoe students honor life-saving bus driver

Fifth-graders recall fatal April collision

May 4, 2007

By Russell Stigall/Frontiersman

WASILLA - Fifth-grade students at Snowshoe Elementary School took time Tuesday to celebrate the bus driver who they say saved their lives.

In between bites from their sack lunches, Vanessa Powell's fifth-graders shared hand-made cards and frosted chocolate cupcakes with Mat-Su Borough School District bus driver Janet Sayen.

With a hard turn of the steering wheel, Sayen saved 20 young students in a fatal truck and bus accident in Anchorage on April 21.

&#8220The bus driver turned the wheel really hard to avoid the truck,” fifth-grader Shayde Williams said. &#8220If she hadn't, the driver would have hit us kids. She saved us.”

Williams' left ankle is wrapped and she has to use crutches to get around. The 11-year old had her feet up on the seat in front of her and sprained her ankle in the collision, which claimed the life of the pickup truck driver and sent three students to the hospital.

Williams and her classmates were on their way back from a field trip in Homer. They were accompanied by Sayen, Powell and three parent volunteers.

Luckily, not all of Powell's class was on the bus. Due to illness and other circumstances, only 20 of her 29 students went on the field trip that Saturday.

Sayen had to be wheeled into Powell's classroom for her celebration Tuesday. She suffered a compound fracture in her right leg from the wreck. The bone still protrudes from the skin of her leg and she must change the wound's dressing daily.

The driver of the pickup, 24-year-old Ryan Brewster, crossed the median and collided with the school bus. On impact, Brewster was flung from the truck. The students, ushered to the back of the bus for safety, were witnesses.

&#8220Pretty much all of us saw his body lying on the ground,” Shayde said.

She said she still thinks about the accident, and some of the memories are difficult.

&#8220I was listening to a song when it happened, and when I hear it now it reminds me of what happened,” Williams said.

The students in the bus didn't initially know what happened.

Ashley Rode, 11, sat in the back of the bus on the return trip from Homer.

&#8220All I thought was we went into the ditch,” Ashley said. &#8220Then I looked up and saw we hit a car.”

Powell said her students were supportive of each other after the accident.

&#8220They sat around with blankets and talked to each other and put their arms around each other,” she said. &#8220You could really tell who was going to help each other.”

The evening was cool and most of the students had removed their shoes for comfort or had had them knocked off in the impact, Powell said. Getting them warm was a major issue.

Powell, sitting in the front of the bus, also suffered injuries. Though she ached from whiplash and bruises on her shoulder and back, Powell was back in her classroom the Monday after the crash. She said she could have taken some time off to recuperate, but that she wanted to be with her students, with whom she said she now has a special bond.

&#8220I hug them more, and my hands are on their shoulders,” Powell said.

Powell said the wreck changed her students.

&#8220There are 20 different kids that I came back to the school with than the ones I taught before,” she said.

Before students returned to school after the accident, Snowshoe school administrators wrote a letter describing the accident for teachers to read to their classes.

&#8220We explained exactly what we know, what the facts are,” Powell said. &#8220To counteract the rumors the kids would hear.”

The students also talked about their feelings with their school counselors, Powell said.

Powell's students wrote cards and letters to the family of the driver who died in the crash. Powell attended his funeral and delivered the cards to his mother.

&#8220She received the cards very well,” Powell said.

Brandon Murak, 10, wrote to Brewster's mother that she raised her son well.

&#8220I wanted to tell them that it wasn't really their fault. It wasn't really anybody's fault,” he said.

Brandon said he learned at least one lesson from the accident.

&#8220When I ride the bus home, I sit in the seat correctly,” he said.

The accident occurred near the Huffman exit of the Seward Highway. Bystanders soon gathered at the site. Some brought hot cocoa for the students, and others loaned cell phones so kids could call their families.

Substitute teacher Davina Middleton said her son, Tyler, 11, was on the bus.

Middleton said her son was level-headed about the accident, much like his father, Dwane Middleton, would be. Tyler's father is currently serving in Kuwait with the National Guard.

Because of Sayden's quick action, Davina Middleton said, she could call her husband overseas and tell him everything was all right.

Middleton said she drove to Anchorage to pick up her son after the accident.

&#8220He said ‘mom, I don't think I can get on another bus,'” Middleton said.

Other students' parents also drove to Anchorage to bring their children home.

After the cupcakes were finished and Powell's class returned to class work, one little second-grade girl stood in the hall crying. Middleton comforted her. The girl asked if she could hug her fifth-grade brother. Not because he was on the bus, but because, as one of Powell's students, he could have been.

&#8220It has been a very emotional experience,” Middleton said.

Contact Russell Stigall at

352-2267 or russell.stigall@ frontiersman.com