A school-bus driver in Akron is being hailed as a hero after tossing a child out of the way of a rolling bus yesterday morning before the vehicle rolled over the driver herself and she was killed.

A school-bus driver in Akron is being hailed as a hero after tossing a child out of the way of a rolling bus yesterday morning before the vehicle rolled over the driver herself and she was killed.

�She sacrificed her own life to save the life of this 10-year-old girl,� said Akron Police Lt. Rick Edwards.

The bus driver has been identified as Laura Zborowski, 51, of Akron.

Edwards said the bus pulled up beside Middlebury Academy in Akron, and Zborowski asked the students to perform routine evacuation drills. The students, about

40 ranging from kindergartners to eighth-graders, first exited the bus at the front and lined up single file on the sidewalk as instructed. They then got back on the bus and exited the rear emergency exit, Edwards said.

The 10-year-old girl, the last to exit, was climbing out of the back of the bus when the vehicle started rolling backward, Edwards said. Zborowski threw the girl onto the tree lawn, and then the bus rolled over Zborowski.

The Akron Beacon Journal reported that, according to police, Zborowski had tried to board the bus after saving the girl to re-engage its brakes. She was pulled under the bus, however, and dragged an estimated 40 feet. The bus then rolled downhill another 40 feet before skipping off an apartment complex and crashing into a tree on the other side of the road.

Zborowski worked for a private bus company, Cincinnati-based Petermann, a subsidiary of National Express Corp. Zborowski was pronounced dead at a hospital about two hours after the 8:10 a.m. accident.

Middlebury Academy and the Akron school district sent grief counselors to the charter school.

Edwards said the State Highway Patrol will examine the mechanics of the bus to determine what caused it to roll backward. National Express spokeswoman Molly Hart said the Warrenville, Ill., company is working with local authorities and conducting its own investigation.

A website for Petermann said the company transports 50,000 Ohio children each school day.