Moments before death, driver steers bus to safety

A young private bus driver died at the wheel due to a sudden heart attack, but managed to steer the vehicle to safety, saving the lives of eight women passengers, in Tambaram on Thursday.

The driver withstood the pain and brought the bus to a halt on the roadside, before collapsing on the gear box, the police said.

A. Anandan (31) of Kovilambakkam was driving a bus owned by a private contractor and hired by a software firm to ferry eight of their women employees to work in Thoraipakkam from areas around Tambaram.

Around 8 a.m., he reportedly suffered a massive attack while driving past Irumbuliyur, said policemen, quoting the women on the bus.

“Despite the acute pain, he swerved to the left and brought the bus to a halt on the margins of Grand Southern Trunk (GST) Road,” said a policeman at Tambaram.

Anandan then fell on the gear box and was rushed by motorists to a private hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

The exact cause of the death will be ascertained only with a post-mortem, the police said. The Tambaram police have registered a case and are investigating.

A native of Tiruvannamalai district, Anandan lived in a rented house in Kovilambakkam with his wife Vasuki, a homemaker, and their one-year-old daughter, Subhiksha.

The police said Anandan had a history of heart ailment and had suffered minor arrests in the past.

The young man displayed a remarkable sense of courage, overcoming severe pain to ensure the safety of passengers.

In a similar incident in October 2013, 45-year-old Sampath steered a bus, ferrying flight crew, to safety on GST Road at St. Thomas Mount and later collapsed on the steering wheel and died.

The driver withstood the pain of the heart attack and brought the bus to a halt, before collapsing on the gear box