Bus driver hailed for getting boy who was running through traffic to safety

MILWAUKEE -- Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) Driver Cecilia Nation-Gardner may have prevented a tragedy on May 15, when she stopped to help a little boy who was running through traffic after wandering away from school.

MCTS indicated in a news release that Nation-Gardner had just pulled up to a bus stop at 35th and Vliet streets in Milwaukee when the child started crossing in front of moving vehicles. Nation-Gardner honked the horn to help get the attention of other drivers, but most cars continued rolling through the area.

Cecilia Nation-Gardner helps boy get to safety

Nation-Gardner got out of her bus and ran into the street. She took the 6-year-old boy’s hand and walked him to the safety of her bus to wait for police to arrive.

Officers later learned the boy, who has a disability, wandered away from school. Police eventually reunited the child with his family.

Nation-Gardner, who has three children of her own, would not normally have been at that particular intersection at that exact time.

MCTS officials say this is the 10th lost or missing child found by MCTS Drivers in recent years.