Off-duty King County Metro bus driver honored for heroism

This article and video originally appeared on “Seattle Refined.”

When one King County Metro driver’s heart attack sent a bus down an embankment, an off-duty colleague intervened to save the driver and the passengers.

King County Metro Bus Operator Chyee Howell was driving the family car with two of her children and her niece on July 12 when they first noticed a Metro bus that had gone off the road. The bus was partly on its side and had come to a stop midway down a ravine with the vehicle’s engine still running.

With no one else yet at the scene, Howell didn’t hesitate to act.

“I told the kids we’re going to pull over and check and make sure all of the passengers are OK,” Howell said. Howell’s 4-year-old daughter, 11-year-old son, and 16-year-old niece unbuckled and got ready to help.

After telephoning for help, Howell made her way alone down the steep, wooded hillside alongside the bus. She precariously stepped onto the bent bike rack at the front of the bus and entered through the smashed windshield. She recalls thinking to herself, “Just get in.”

“I know sometimes we like to assess situations a lot more,” Howell said. “But this was my fellow co-worker, and I wasn’t going to just sit there.”

Partially choking up, Howell added, “It was a really time-sensitive moment, and you can’t wait.”

Guided by her safety training and her knowledge of the bus, she explained her approach at the time as, “Let’s get this coach stopped, make sure the parking brake is on, make sure no passengers are hurt, make sure that the driver is OK.”

Soon realizing that she knew the operator experiencing the medical issue—and that he appeared to have stopped breathing—made it even more challenging for Howell.

“I just told myself to calm down because he needs you,” Howell said. “I just wanted him to be OK.”

Howell describing struggling to stand up straight in the tilted bus. She again called for help—this time through the built-in emergency system on the bus—and assured the riders that it would be OK.

In addition to aiding the driver, Howell helped three teenage boys—one with a serious wound—open a side window so they could climb out before turning her attention to an older man partially lodged under a seat. She put her arms underneath his, leaned back with all her weight, and dislodged him so that she could move him to a seat.

As emergency medical technicians arrived, Howell directed them to aid the operator while she, her son, her niece, and even the two uninjured teenage passengers pulled the injured, older passenger through an emergency window exit.

Returning once again to the bus driver, Howell told the emergency medical technicians to remove him through the front windshield. After assuring them that the bus’s engine was off, the wheel was secure, and the parking brake was engaged, they asked Howell, who was not in her work clothes, “Who are you?”

“I work for King County Metro,” she replied.

“Were you on the bus?”

“No. I jumped on the bus.”

Thanks to Howell’s quick intervention, calls for help, and expert guidance, that operator—whose breathing and pulse were once weak or even stopped—is now recovering at home. The other riders are all in stable condition too.

Still, when asked, Howell doesn’t consider herself a hero.

“I really just think that I’m a mom,” Howell said. “My maternal instincts take over no matter what your age is. If I see you’re in trouble or you need some help, I just go. I have faith in God, and I believe that if we all had that same ‘go’ attitude, a lot of stuff would be better in the world. I just keep going. I don’t think ‘I’m small, I can’t do this.’ I think whatever I can do, I’m just going to apply it and see if it works.”

Howell also said it felt good that her kids and niece helped out. She remembers others at the scene just stood around, whereas her son and niece assisted the similar-aged passengers after they had escaped through the window. The two sets of youth still stay in touch via text.

Howell shares that first-responders were perhaps most surprised seeing that Howell’s four-year-old was also trying to help—although police were able to distract her with promises of ice cream.

Howell was honored for her heroism by King County Executive Dow Constantine. The presentation ceremony was also attended by Metro General Manager Michelle Allison, Bus Operations Division Director Phil DeVault, and dozens of Metro colleagues.

Howell is very appreciative of the recognition, although she doesn’t quite know what to make of it.

“When you just do something because it’s in your heart, you don’t think that someone would acknowledge you for it,” Howell said. “I really feel like I was just doing what I was supposed to do.”

Now in her ninth year driving for Metro, Howell chose her profession because of her deep appreciation for the kindness that Metro bus operators showed her growing up homeless with her mother and three brothers in Seattle.

“I wanted to be that same person for somebody else,” Howell said. “I believe I was put on this earth not just for myself, but God put me here to help others. I feel like Metro is the best way to do it.”