The school shared a photo on its Facebook page showing Moana and Mykyla with the brightly coloured bunch of flowers he gave her. The post also recorded Moana’s comments that Mykyla had responded exceptionally well after the collision, reassuring younger passengers and taking the initiative to phone the school.
Mykyla had been sitting in the front passenger seat of the bus, closest to the driver, when the collision happened and was nearest the corner of the bus affected by the impact.
“I genuinely didn’t know what to feel because I didn’t realise what had happened until I saw the ute in front of us,” Mykyla said.
“I looked back at everyone else, and they were like, ‘What just happened? Did we have a car crash?’.”
Tauraroa is an area school, and students on the bus ranged in age from primary school students to senior secondary school students, Burns said.
Mykyla said the youngest passenger that day was a Year 4 student (typically aged about 8 or 9), and older students made a conscious effort to stay calm for the younger students.
“We had to keep pretty calm to make sure that the little kids didn’t get too freaked out,” she said.
Some of the students arrived at school still feeling shaken.
“The adrenaline really hit them. They weren’t screaming scared, they were like, ‘Oh my gosh, what’s happened?’,” Mykyla said.
Fortunately, after a “bit of a debrief and a hot choccy”, all were content to get on with their school day, Burns said.
Burns said he was proud of the way the students had lived up to one of the school’s main values, manaakitanga – showing care, support and respect for others.
“We are very proud of the way in which Mykyla and other students reacted in this very stressful situation.”
Tauraroa Area School in Northland.
Burns said Year 13 students CoCo Bates and Summer Watson had also made a standout contribution at the scene.
“Thanks also to Moana and our team of drivers who so carefully and reliably transport our students every day.
“It’s good to know that, even when things go wrong, our tamariki are in good hands,” Burns said.
He understood police were investigating the collision.
Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years’ experience in journalism, most of which she spent reporting on the courts in Gisborne and the East Coast.