A veteran MTA bus driver is being called a hero, after his quick-thinking actions on the job in Manhattan.
Luis Jimenez was driving his bus when he noticed a little girl alone on the sidewalk who then ran into the street.
“My instinct as a father came on because if I see a kid in the street in need of help, I would want somebody to help one of my children or one of my grandkids” Jimenez said.
It was a Tuesday in September, and Jimenez was considering calling out sick, but he didn’t. The 60-year-old was just wrapping up his morning shift on the crosstown M116 when he spotted the 5-year-old girl seemingly by herself on the sidewalk near 106th street and Broadway.
“You know, my wife always, you know, kind of like she’s worried about me because she knows that when I see something, it’s like we have a saying in the MTA, ‘if you see something, say something.’ Oh, well, with me, I will do something,” he said.
Jimenez says he kept an eye on the girl for about a block or so before telling a passenger to call 911. He then pulls over and calls his dispatcher, and with the help of other riders, gets the young girl on the bus.