Driver ensures passenger safety before falling dead

Battling severe chest pain, a bus driver today saved 110 passengers by taking the vehicle to the side of a busy ghat road before collapsing and dying of a heart attack on the steering wheel near Pandalur, about 70 km from here.

Abdul Rahman (45) suffered a heart attack and started sweating profusely while carrying 110 passengers from Sultan Battery to Pandalur, police said.

The Kerala State Transport Coporation bus then twice veered off course, but Rahman managed to take it to the side of the road and stopped after hitting a wall near Neelakottai. He then collapsed on the steering wheel and died, they said.

Some passengers took Rahman, a resident of Kozhikode, to a nearby hospital, he was declared brought dead, they said.

Police said the road has lots of curves and it was only the timely action of the driver that had prevented the bus from falling into a deep gorge.