With a load full of children every day, school bus drivers come to expect all kinds of surprises. But Dolores Switzer ran into something in December that no one could have predicted.

Driving her 24 first- and second-graders to school in Branchburg, N.J., during a storm with wind gusts topping 50 mph, Switzer heard a loud noise. It turned out to be a tree branch falling; the branch snapped a power line, which fell onto the bus.

Switzer, a member of the Branchburg Federation of Teachers, stopped the bus and radioed for help, but she also realized she had to get the youngsters off the bus as quickly as possible. The power wire lines were still live, but as the fire chief later explained, the bus's rubber tires helped prevent the occupants from being electrocuted.

By the time Switzer helped the students--including her own son--out the rear emergency exit, the tires were smoking. The bus subsequently caught fire and was turned into a frightening pile of charred metal. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

"I needed to make sure the kids were all safe because once they are on my bus, they are my kids," Switzer told the Newark Star-Ledger the day of the accident. "Even though I have my own son on the bus, he was the last one to get off."

Amazingly, an understandably shaken Switzer was back on duty that afternoon to drive her students home. "I thought if they didn't see me, they'd wonder where I was. I told them we work as a team," she said.

In January, Switzer and the youngsters were honored for their heroism during a local school board meeting. Among those on hand, in addition to school officials, were the mayor, the state assemblyman from the area and representatives of the local highway safety council.