Buffalo, NY (WIVB) - In the three years that Darnell Barton has been driving a Metro bus, he's met all kinds of people, but he will never forget a young lady who he came upon one recent Friday afternoon. 
 
 Driving the Elmwood 20 bus southbound toward Buffalo State College the on-bus surveillance video shows the lady standing on the narrow ledge outside the railing over the Scajaquada Expressway. 
 
 "It didn't seem real because what was going on around, traffic and pedestrians were going by as normal" said Barton. The driver pulled up alongside of her and opened his doors shouting from the drivers' seat, "ma'am are you okay". 
 
 When she didn't answer he walked toward her. "She was distraught, she was distant, she was really disconnected. I grabbed her arm and put my arm around her and said 'Do you want to come on this side of the guardrail', and that was actually the first time she spoke to me she said yes." 
 
 Darnell actually lifted her from the outside of the railing to the safety of the sidewalk. "It was meant to be. I was supposed to be there for her at that moment and I was. I wanted to convey that whatever it was, I'm going to help you through and it's not as serious as jumping onto the 198." 
 
 After he sat on the sidewalk and talked with her for a few minutes, a corrections officer who had seen her from the Scajaquada walked up the embankment. he was joined by another good Samaritan who said she counsels people as part of her job. 
 
 Darnell thinks most of his co-workers would've done the same thing. His co-workers call him 'Big Country', a big man with a big heart, and after he did what he did, the passengers gave him a round of applause. 
 
 "I feel like I did what I was supposed to do at the time. I'm a football guy so when you sit the bench and the coach calls your number, you gotta go in there make a play, do what the play calls for, and I think that's what I did." ||||| Bus driver Darnell Barton had just picked up 20 McKinley High School students eager to get home on a recent Friday afternoon. 
 
 They had to wait a little longer than usual while Barton saved a woman’s life and taught them an unexpected lesson in human compassion. 
 
 As the 37-year-old driver pulled away from the school bus stop at about 3:50 p.m. on Oct. 18, heading southbound on Elmwood Avenue, he saw a disturbing sight on the Scajaquada Expressway overpass. A woman was on the opposite side of the railing leaning out over the traffic below. 
 
 “I didn’t think it was real with everything else going on around her. Traffic was proceeding as normal and a couple of pedestrians walked right by her and a bicyclist rode by. I mean, they were inches from her,” said Barton, who instinctively stopped his bus and opened the doors. 
 
 “Do you need help?” he asked. 
 
 She looked at him and then back at the traffic on the expressway from her precarious perch on the west side of the overpass. 
 
 Barton called the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority’s Metro Bus dispatcher and reported what was happening. 
 
 But the reality of the situation struck him when he heard one of the students weeping and saying, “I don’t want to see someone die.” 
 
 Cautiously, Barton stepped from the bus. He made his move when he was within a few steps of the woman. 
 
 “She turned back to look at me and then back at the traffic and that’s when I kind of lunged and got my left arm around her body,” Barton said. “I asked her, ‘Do you want to come on this side of the guard rail now?’ and that was the first time she spoke to me and said, ‘Yeah.’ ” 
 
 Barton said he helped her over the railing and suggested they have a seat. 
 
 “We both sat on the sidewalk right there on Elmwood Avenue and I asked, ‘Where are you from?’ I tried to get some information. She wasn’t forthcoming. She looked down and then looked up and said, ‘You smell good.’ ” 
 
 The simple remark brought a sense of relief to the bus driver, who’d splashed on some cologne that day before leaving for work. 
 
 “She wasn’t that detached,” he said. 
 
 Other concerned individuals arrived. 
 
 A state prison corrections officer, who had been on the expressway and pulled his vehicle over, climbed up the embankment. A woman who identified herself as a crisis counselor talked to the unidentified woman, who was in her 20s. 
 
 “The counselor was tender and compassionate,” said Barton, who never learned why the young woman had been driven to consider taking her own life. 
 
 Buffalo police and firefighters arrived, as did police from nearby SUNY Buffalo State and the Buffalo Psychiatric Center. 
 
 Another bus was dispatched to take the young passengers on their way while Barton, a Buffalo resident, stayed at the scene to give police an account of what had happened. 
 
 “Darnell won’t tell you this, but when he went back on his bus, the McKinley students gave him a round of applause,” said C. Douglas Hartmayer, NFTA spokesman, adding that authority officials only recently learned of the driver’s heroic actions from earlier this month. “That’s because of Darnell’s modesty, which speaks to his demeanor of being very humble.” 
 
 In fact, after Barton had given a statement, he continued to work, driving the outbound Route 5 route before completing his shift. 
 
 When his adrenaline had settled down and he had time to reflect, Barton recalled thinking to himself how he had done the right thing. 
 
 But rather than allow the spotlight to shine on him Tuesday during an interview, Barton, who drove school buses for years before landing an NFTA job three years ago, said he was impressed with the way the students on his bus had behaved. 
 
 “They were great. They sat there quietly. It was an encouragement to me. Oftentimes we look at young people and we forget we were young,” he said. “As each of them got off the bus, they shook my hand.” 
 
 They are not the only ones who admire Barton. 
 
 “We are all extremely proud of Darnell’s heroic actions,” said Kimberley A. Minkel, the NFTA’s executive director. “His quick and calm response during a very stressful situation speaks volumes about his character and unwavering willingness to help someone in need.” 
 
 Barton, though low-key, says he will be pleased if what he did helps the image of his fellow bus drivers, to show them as caring and compassionate. 
 
 email: lmichel@buffnews.com ||||| The Niagara University women’s basketball team has been stranded more than 24 hours in snow on I-90 near Buffalo. A blizzard buried the highway early Tuesday, stopping traffic in both directions. (Courtesy of Niagara Women’s Basketball) 
 
 The Niagara University women’s basketball team lost its second game of the season Monday night against the University of Pittsburgh. Although the team took an early lead, it was trounced by the Pittsburgh Panthers, 70-54. 
 
 When the game ended, it was late. And the Purple Eagles were exhausted. 
 
 “It was an exciting game, but didn’t turn out as we wanted it to,” Emily Granruth, a 19-year-old guard, told The Washington Post in a telephone interview late Tuesday night. So they climbed into a charter bus headed home to Lewiston, N.Y., just outside Niagara Falls. Many fell asleep. 
 
 “When we woke up, we realized it was snowing. Then we were stuck,” Granruth said in an interview from the bus. “It was a little scary. We didn’t know what was going on.” 
 
 A New York blizzard buried Interstate 90 near Buffalo, N.Y., stopping traffic in both directions. The Purple Eagles became stranded along with some 140 other vehicles, authorities said. Police made the rounds on snowmobiles to keep drivers informed. 
 
 The teammates exhausted their food and water supply, forced to pack team water bottles with fresh snow. When asked about the bathroom situation, Granruth said, “So far, so good,” but didn’t elaborate. 
 
 Early Wednesday morning, the team tweeted, “On our way back to campus now!” But it was a long trip for these athletes who were just trying to beat the storm. 
 
 The snow was blowing down so hard into Tuesday morning, the teammates couldn’t see outside. The roads hadn’t been plowed. And, about 2 a.m., the bus was stopped with 24 people on board. Head coach Kendra Faustin told CNN, “I’m assuming that somebody in the front of the line got stuck and everybody else had to stop, and that’s how we got where we are.” 
 
 As The Post’s Cindy Boren reported, the teammates passed the time talking to each other and checking in with their families back home. They used social media to keep loved ones updated. 
 
 Sleepover with the team on a bus in a blizzard!!! #StrandedInTheSnow — Emily Granruth (@emilygranruth) November 18, 2014 
 
 You know it’s bad when you close your eyes and you think the bus is moving #NUWBBstrandedonbus — Focused. (@sylvoslice24) November 18, 2014 
 
 Granruth said the bus driver told them the vehicle had about 200 hours of idle time, so they were able to keep the motor running to keep the lights on and the heater blowing. 
 
 “We’re doing fine,” Renee Polka, the team’s director of operations, told WIVB-TV on Tuesday. “The bus hasn’t stopped running since we left Pittsburgh. So that’s definitely a positive. So we’re probably luckier than others on the road right now.” 
 
 As the hours passed, Granruth said one of her teammates, Tiffany Corselli, started a team prayer “as a way to keep our spirits up.” In one photo posted to social media, the players were huddled inside the bus, holding hands and bowing their heads. 
 
 “At the top of every hour, I’ve been praying for our strength,” Corselli, a 19-year-old guard, told The Post on Tuesday night. “I just felt that it was something that we needed and it really brought our team together. I think everybody is hungry, restless, tired. … I know we’re in a bad state but there are people worse off then us.” 
 
 Tuesday was the coldest November morning since 1976. Across the country, temperatures fell below freezing in at least one city in all 50 states. The lake-effect storm, which some have dubbed “thunder snow,” smothered Buffalo in more than six feet of snow in some areas, leaving people stranded in their vehicles along roadways. 
 
 First responders were using snowmobiles from volunteers to respond to calls. At least four people have died — one in a vehicle accident, three others from cardiac arrest while shoveling snow, CNN reported. 
 
 New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) deployed the National Guard to Western New York to help those affected by the snowstorm. 
 
 Granruth said about five minutes before she spoke with The Post on Tuesday night, the team ran out of food. Police on snowmobiles came by and dropped off protein bars and packaged cookies. They filled their bottles with snow. 
 
 “We’re all a little worried, a little scared, but we’re sticking together and trying to help each other out,” she said at the time. “We’re really thinking about everyone else who’s stuck in the storm. We all hope it’s resolved quickly.” 
 
 A few hours later, the teammates posted a photo on Twitter showing their trip home. 
 
 On our way back to campus now! pic.twitter.com/urg4bYAhiD — NiagaraWBB (@NiagaraWBB) November 19, 2014 
 
 Assistant coach Corinne Jones told WGRZ-TV it’s an experience they will never forget. 
 
 “You couldn’t set up a team bonding experience like this, I don’t think,” Jones said. “And we as coaches always talk about mental toughness and this is really a true test of how tough are we. I don’t hear a lot of complaining.” 
 
 
 
 The Niagara University women’s basketball team in better times. (Courtesy of Niagara Woman’s Basketball) 
 
 This post has been updated. 
 
 Related: 
 
 Buffalo, N.Y., area in the midst of a truly insane lake-effect snowstorm 
 
 1 of 68 Full Screen Autoplay Close Nov. 18, 2014 Tuesday Nov. 17, 2014 Monday Nov. 16, 2014 Nov. 14, 2014 Nov. 13, 2014 Nov. 12, 2014 Wednesday Nov. 11, 2014 Tuesday Nov. 10, 2014 Monday Skip Ad × Arctic blast hits the U.S. View Photos Colder than normal temperatures are chilling much of the country. Caption Colder than normal temperatures are chilling much of the country. Nov. 19, 2014 New York Air National Guard members from the 107th Airlift Wing in Niagara Falls remove snow from the roof of the Eden Heights Assisted Living Facility in West Seneca, N.Y., outside of Buffalo. Maj. Mark Frank/U.S. National Guard via European Pressphoto Agency Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
– A Buffalo bus driver is getting the hero's treatment after stopping his bus to get a suicidal young woman off a bridge overpass, reports WIVB-TV. Darnell Barton, who had just picked up about two dozen high school students, spotted the woman on the wrong side of the ledge, seemingly about to jump into traffic, reports the Buffalo News. He stopped his bus, asked her if she needed help, then slowly made his way toward her. "She was distraught, she was distant, she was really disconnected," he recalls. "I grabbed her arm and put my arm around her and said, 'Do you want to come on this side of the guardrail,' and that was actually the first time she spoke to me. She said yes." He then sat down with her on the sidewalk until authorities arrived. “Darnell won’t tell you this, but when he went back on his bus, the McKinley students gave him a round of applause,” says a spokesman for the local transit agency.