Cyclist hit by Dublin bus after driver passes out behind wheel

This bus drifted through the red lights at O'Connell St in Dublin, with a cyclist in its path and the driver passed out behind the wheel.

 

A cyclist was taken to hospital after a bus drifted into him in Dublin when the driver had passed out at the wheel.

It later emerged the driver had had a heart attack and both he and the cyclist his bus hit were hospitalised.

A nurse who was on the bus at the time realised what was happening and intervened.

In an interview on Newstalk FM, Mater Hospital nurse Aoife McGivney said he was alerted to what was happening when people began screaming on the No 16 bus.

The vehicle was approaching O’Connell Bridge from Westmoreland St in Dublin city centre when it began drifting forward and through a red light just after 7.30am yesterday.

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Passengers quickly realised the driver had passed out. Aoife McGivney then intervened, taking the driver’s feet away from the pedals and administering emergency care.

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“The bus was rolling. I heard people screaming when they realised we were going through a red light. There were cars beeping,” she said.

“What was really scary was that we started going over a bicycle. Everyone started screaming.

“I ran up to the bus driver and saw he was unconscious. I turned around and said ‘we need to stop the bus’. The bus was still rolling.

“I tried to pull down the window on the door of the bus and we were able to shake him. Then I was able to reach in to move his legs to get his foot off the accelerator.

“It ended up slowing down and cutting out. We rolled to a halt.”

Once the bus was stopped Ms McGivney assessed the driver and realised he was going into full cardiac arrest.

The driver was lifted out onto the pavement and she then began performing CPR on him and was aided by a passing garda.

The Gardai confirmed the driver, who is in his 50s, was taken to hospital where he is still undergoing medical care.

And the cyclist hit by the bus, and whose bike was destroyed, was also taken to hospital though he was not seriously injured.

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