Team honors school bus driver who rescued IU Indy men's basketball team from bus fire

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A Lawrenceburg school driver rescued the IU Indy men’s basketball team when their bus went up in flames on the interstate. The team invited her to their last regular season game on Saturday.

“Hero of the game.” That’s what Amber Pickett is to the basketball team. But, just one week ago, she’d never met them.

A mechanical failure caused the team’s bus to be scorched on Sunday when they were traveling back to Indianapolis from a game at Northern Kentucky. The fire happened on I-275 near Lawrenceburg.

Pickett was at her home not too far away.

“I live by the fire department and I heard a fire truck go by,” Pickett said.

Pickett, a school bus driver in Lawrenceburg, turned on the local police scanner. She heard a bus was in a blaze on the interstate, but didn’t know whose bus it was.

First responders said they needed another bus to help. Pickett didn’t have to look too far.

“I went down and got my bus,” Pickett said.

She arrived to find a shell of the team’s bus surrounded by a team of guys covered in ash and carrying scorched luggage.

“He was standing there with his bag that was all burnt and charred up and I felt so bad for him…I had tears in my eyes,” Pickett said.

Stranded on the side of the road, with no plan, Pickett told the boys to pile inside her school bus. She took them to a local pizza shop, where they could organize getting back to Indy.

“One guy bought me a diet coke,” Pickett said.

Miraculously, nobody on the team was hurt and they eventually arrived back on campus.

To thank the Hoosier hero, the team invited Pickett to sit courtside for their Saturday game.

“It is just neat to see the guys again in a good light this time,” Pickett said. “As I tell my kids on the bus, it’s free to be nice to people. There’s too much hate in this world, so spread love.”

The team also gifted her the game ball with signatures.