A St. Albert father and son say if they had stuck to their regular routines, they could've been in the pool that a runaway school bus plunged into on Monday afternoon.
The crash happened around 3 p.m. when the bus left McKenney Avenue and crashed through a fence and into a home's backyard pool.
Sam Akplu was one of two people who rushed to rescue the female driver.
"I jumped in and then the other guy jumped in," he said. "She was in pain."
The driver was taken to hospital and was released on Monday night, according to a statement from Cunningham Transport, the company that operates the school bus.
The home belong's to Akplu's in-laws and he says his 9-year-old son Theo is often playing in the pool with friends around the time the bus crashed.
"My kids come swimming here every day," he said. "Sometimes twice a day."
But Theo had decided to go to a skatepark with his preschool friend instead.
Sam himself narrowly missed being injured. He says he ducked inside on a break from deck-building to grab a sandwich just minutes before the bus broke through the bench.
The pool is now contaminated with oil and has likely developed a leak, according to Akplu.
The cause of the crash remains under RCMP investigation.
