*WARNING: The video contains some graphic material that may not be suitable for viewers*
EUSTIS, Fla. (WLFA) — A Florida bus driver is being hailed as a hero after she used her bus to shield a hit-and-run victim from oncoming traffic last week.
Stacy Hatcher had just dropped off Eustis High School band members from a field trip shortly after 9 p.m. on Oct. 23 when she found a woman lying in the middle of the road.
Hatcher told News 6 WKM that when she first saw the woman, she thought it was a Halloween prank.
“I thought it was a prank for Halloween, you know, that someone would do to put someone in the road to kind of scare someone, which it did scare me,” Hatcher told the local station. “So when I saw her, I immediately put my bus in park, and I brightened my lights, and what made me know it was a real body — I saw blood running alongside the road where she was laying, and I immediately called 911.”
Hatcher told WKM she used her school bus to block off traffic and cleared the scene until first responders arrived.
The Lake County School District praised Hatcher for her life-saving thinking. The district shared a story from Inside Lake on Facebook with the caption, “Bus driver Stacey Hatcher used her school bus to shield a hit-and-run victim from oncoming traffic in Eustis on Monday night, possibly saving the person’s life.”
The school district added a picture of Hatcher standing next to a school bus with the text reading, “Bus Driver Hero.”
“Thank you for your thoughtful actions in protecting a hit-and-run victim from oncoming traffic. We appreciate you!” the message read.
The Eustis Police Department posted a news release confirming the hit-and-run incident, saying the alleged suspect was traveling in an “older model white passenger car, with a black body molding strip across the front/rear passenger doors and little to no tint on the windows.”
According to WKM, authorities do not have a suspect description.
Anyone with information on this incident is asked to contact the Eustis Police Department at 352-357-4121.
