Bus ploughs into garden after driver taken ill at the wheel
A shocked Edel Murphy (right) from Clonard Road in Dublin inspects the bus that demolished her front garden wall yesterday and came to a halt just a few feet from her front door.
Thursday September 20 2007
A passenger was hailed a hero yesterday after he grabbed the steering wheel of a Dublin Bus double-decker and directed it out of the way of oncoming traffic when the vehicle's driver suddenly became unwell.
The bus mounted a pavement and crashed into the garden wall of a house in Crumlin before finally coming to a stop.
Three people, the female driver and two passengers, were taken to hospital suffering from shock following the incident at the junction of Kildare Road and Clonard Road at around 9.30am yesterday.
There were no other passengers on the bus at the time.
Edel Murphy, the owner of the house, said there were frantic efforts to free the sick driver from the bus as she was locked inside the driver's cabin.
She said several people had seen the driver slumped over the wheel before the accident occurred.
"It was just panic, everyone started running, everybody tried to help. She was actually in the little cabin but nobody could get her out," she said.
Ms Murphy rushed into her house to get a screwdriver and hammer and a member of the public eventually managed to free the driver.
"She was kind of all over the place, she didn't know where she was but she was able to walk off the bus," she added.
The homeowner and her daughter both saw the young man trying to grab hold of the steering wheel through the cabin window. They said it appeared the bus was about to pull in on the opposite side of the road when it suddenly swerved and headed straight for their house.
Two units of Dublin Fire Brigade, two ambulances and gardai all rushed to the scene. The driver and passengers were not thought to have suffered any injuries but were taken to St James's Hospital suffering from shock.
The number 121 bus was en route from Drimnagh to Cabra. No other vehicles were involved.
A spokesperson for Dublin Bus declined to comment on reports that the driver had become ill, saying a full investigation had been launched.
