Haripad: The presence of mind of a KSRTC Super Fast bus driver, who fell unconscious, averted an accident here on Wednesday. The driver, N G Biju, 44, of Vaikom, brought the vehicle to a halt even as he fainted when the bus reached near the power house at Karuvatta here around noon.
Another driver of a KSRTC ordinary bus later took the fainted colleague in the Super Fast to the Taluk Hospital at Haripad. The driver had to be taken in the bus itself since none of the motorists that passed by bothered to stop to help the man.
The Super Fast was heading to Parassala in Thiruvananthapuram from Palakkad when the driver, N G Biju, 44, of Vaikom, felt giddy and stopped the bus. He fainted immediately.
The conductor and passengers shifted Biju to a seat, and a doctor travelling in the same bus, provided him first aid. The doctor recommended the immediate shifting of the patient to a hospital.
Conductor M R Sanal Raj and passengers tried to get a vehicle to shift the driver to the hospital, but none of the vehicles passing through the busy highway stopped. Later, G Pradeep, the driver of an ordinary KSRTC schedule took the Super Fast to the hospital. Biju was later shifted to the Medical College Hospital in Alappuzha. The Super Fast passengers were later accommodated in other buses.
The Super Fast crew, Biju and Raj, had left Parassala near Tamil Nadu border at 2.30 pm on Tuesday and reached Palakkad around 3 am on Wednesday. They started the return trip - as per KSRTC schedule - at 6.15 am after resting for two hours. The bus was to reach Parassala at 4.30 pm.
