Atlanta City Councilman Howard Shook to honor APS bus driver for heroic actions

Atlanta City Councilman Howard Shook will join students and faculty of Sarah Smith Elementary School in honoring bus driver Robert Watson for heroic actions taking when an Atlanta Public Schools bus went up in flames one week ago.

A city proclamation and a Phoenix Award will be presented to Watson on behalf of the city of Atlanta at 10 a.m. Thursday, April 3, 2008 during a campus ceremony in the gymnasium of Sarah Smith Elementary School, located at 370 Old Ivy Road, NE Atlanta.

All 40 students aboard the bus 904 at the time escaped without injury.

According to reports, the bus driver smelled smoke coming from the vehicle just after 3 p.m. Watson then pulled the bus to the side of the road and ordered the children, first through fifth graders at Sarah Rawson Smith Elementary School, to exit the bus as quickly as possible.

The students all got off the bus minutes before it went up in flames.

Joining Councilman Shook and school officials will be fellow APS bus drivers, parents of the students on board of the bus 904, school board officials, members of the North Buckhead Civic Association, state officials and other dignitaries.