Passenger pulls bus over after driver passes out at wheel

Bus driver passes out, hero comes to the rescue A bus passenger jumps in to help after the driver passes out at the wheel. Tracy Tong reports.

A quick-thinking passenger pulled a bus over to the shoulder of Highway 401 Thursday afternoon after its driver passed out behind the wheel.

Passengers told CP24 the bus, arriving in the GTA from Sudbury, was on Highway 401 heading east near Keele Street when the driver slumped over at the wheel.

There were 47 people on board the bus at the time.

“Traffic slowed and then he slowed the bus and then passed out for a couple of seconds,” Connie Bowes, a passenger said.

Bowes said another female passenger went up to the driver’s seat, pulled the driver’s foot off the gas pedal and steered the bus to a shoulder so “we wouldn’t hit anything.”

Passengers on the bus have been sending messages to the woman they only know as “Rebecca.”

“If you’re out there watching, thank you. I think you’re out there. You’re going to get your blessings in 2018 after this good deed,” one of the passengers said.

Ontario Northland spokesperson Renee Baker said the driver, believed to be in his 60’s, “experienced a medical issue and is currently receiving medical care.”

“A motor coach operator was dispatched to the location of the pulled over bus,” Baker said, and the bus made it to its final destination of the downtown Toronto motor coach terminal later on Thursday.

Ontario Northland will conduct a full investigation into what occurred, Baker said.