Two UGA players come to aid at accident scene

The inclement weather led to a couple Georgia football players performing a seasonal good deed.

Tailback Washaun Ealey and linebacker Mike Gilliard helped a student bus driver who had crashed into a set of trees late on Wednesday night. The incident occurred at the corner of Cedar and Sanford, where the roads were wet and icy.

According to an account provided by each player, the pair was driving home, behind the campus bus, when it hydroplaned and ran into some trees. The bus, which was empty other than the driver, stayed upright. But the players saw a limb sticking through a window, and could hear the student bus driver, a woman, shouting for help.

“We just wanted to help her out, that’s all,” Gilliard said.

Ealey stopped the car, and the two players got out, then pried open the back door to the bus. When they got inside, the driver was still in the driver’s seat.

“She was panicking. She was crying. She was thanking God that she didn’t get hurt,” Ealey said.

“I guess she was just scared to move, basically,” Gilliard said. “She said everything was OK.”

The players helped the woman out of the bus, then stayed with her a few minutes until police showed up. Then the players went about their night.

“We just started calling everybody,” Ealey said, laughing.

Indeed, the word quickly spread around the team.

“Mike and Washaun think they’re superheroes now, like they lifted a bus or got a cat from a tree,” Rambo said, smiling. Then he turned more serious: “That was a good thing they did. It shows they care and they love everybody. It shows how they were raised up. Anybody could’ve kept going, but their parents raised them to stop and help out.”

Head coach Mark Richt commended the players in a statement.

"Those two guys did a very good deed," Richt said. "They stopped and helped out and I'm proud of them. The assisted someone who was in distress, which is a good thing."