Deer crashes through school bus windshield, lands on 'very confused,' sleepy student

POWHATAN COUNTY, Va. -- Brendan Martin, 15, sits in the same seat on the school bus every single day.

When the Powhatan High School freshman sat in his seat on the way to school Thursday morning, he had one goal.

“I was tired, so I wanted to go to sleep," he said.

So he did. But what happened next is the stuff of nightmares.

“I felt the bus instantly slow down and then instantly I hear like a loud noise," Martin said. “I got pushed down."

WTVR

What Martin did not know at the time was that a deer jumped through the school bus windshield and essentially landed on him.

The scary situation was captured on the bus security camera.

“I was really confused because I was trying to sleep and I woke up to something on my back," he said. "I realized it was a deer and was just very confused because I’d never seen a deer actually jump through a windshield and then land."

Brian Bartlett, the Interim Director of Transportation for Powhatan County Schools, said the bus driver reported that the deer came out on his left, jumped up in the air, and crashed through the windshield.

None of the 14 students on the bus were seriously injured.

"He did great," Martin said about his bus driver. "He stopped, did what he needed to, made sure everyone was safe, got the deer out as fast as he could. He did everything good."

"He stayed real calm," Bartlett added.

Martin walked away without a scratch.

The school bus sustained a busted windshield, windshield wiper arm, wiper blade, and a mirror.

Martin said he had no problem grabbing his favorite seat the next time he rides the bus to school.

“There’s no way it’s happening twice," he said.