A teacher at American Fork (Utah) High School, Christensen taught band. She traveled with her school’s band to a competition in Pocatello, Idaho — and they won. It took four chartered buses to transport the band, parent chaperones, and all their equipment to the competition, and the convoy was on the way back to Utah when the driver in the bus Christensen was on passed out.
“When she saw the bus driver pass out, she went straight for the wheel to try to regain control of the bus,” one of the students said, saying if she hadn’t taken action, many of the students would surely have been killed. But only one person died: Christensen, who was partially ejected in the crash because she was the only one not in a seat. It was October 10, and she was 33.