Driver, Kids Helped Pull Woman’s
Feet from Frozen Roadway

TICONDEROGA, N.Y. (Feb. 15, 2008) — For the past two weeks, the five students who rescued a barefoot woman from the side of a snow-covered road have told the swarm of reporters and congratulators that they did what anyone would have done. But Robert Chamberlain, their school bus driver, is convinced otherwise.

Robert Chamberlain and his first pickups stand in the hospital where they were commended for saving a woman from the side of the road. Photo Courtesy Lohr McKinstry/Press-Republican.

"As far as I’m concerned, anyone that came along would have done the same thing,” said Chamberlain, who had only been working full-time for a month. “Or should have done the same thing. Unfortunately, a lot of times they wouldn’t.”

The students — Nadine Mars, Nicholas Mars, Rourk Nielsen, Katie Minor and Eric Minor — were Chamberlain’s first two pickups. When he pulled to the side of the road and asked for help pulling the woman’s feet from the frozen roadway, they rushed out, lifted her onto the bus and wrapped her in their coats.

Ten hours earlier, Roxanne Dore had been driving home after visiting a friend when her car slid off the road, down an embankment and into a brook. For hours, she tried to escape as she slid down a 12-foor embankment and lost her shoes, keys and way in the snow and darkness. Eventually, she took shelter in her car and prayed.

At seven the next morning, Dore heard the sounds of the school bus passing on the road above. In the light, she found an easier way and scrambled up to the road, collapsing in a snowbank just as Chamberlain completed a U-turn.

After bringing Dore on the bus and blasting the heater, Chamberlain radioed the driver of a nearby school bus who relayed a message to emergency responders. Assistant Chief Matthew Watts was one of the first to arrive on scene. Dore was within hours of death, but the students and Chamberlain did everything right, Watts said.

“Kids these days get a pretty bad rap on some things,” Watts said. “It’s nice to see something good come out, where they’re getting recognized for doing something good.”

After emergency responders took Dore to the hospital and a substitute bus picked up his passengers to get them to school on time, Chamberlain got back on his own bus and finished his route to make sure no waiting students had been forgotten amid the rescue. As it turns out, there was and, after dropping off the last student, Chamberlain was only 10 minutes late to school.

Chamberlain and the children have been praised by local news, the school board, town and fire department.

"(The students) kept saying, ‘We’re not heroes,’” Chamberlain said. “I told them, 'Like it or not, you are.'”