Ooty: Kozhikode-based bus driver Abdul Rahman (45) managed to save the lives of 100 passengers on board even as he battled sudden and severe chest pain while driving on the hazardous ghat road on Nigiris border, bringing the bus to a halt by hitting it against a wall alongside the road before he collapsed.
Though it was a routine journey for the over-loaded Kerala State Transport Corporation bus with 100-odd passengers travelling from Sultan Battery in Kerala to Gudalur on the Nilgiris border on Monday morning, things took a dramatic turn when the bus was nearing Nilakottai, 17 km off Gudalur, when the lives of the passengers were put to risk on the ghat road, which has deep gorges.
Abdul Rahman began to experience a pain in the chest and struggled to keep his hands on the steering wheel. It was around 8.30 am when the driver developed chest pain and struggled to keep pace and direction as the bus twice veered off the normal course, but managed to bring it back on course.
The passengers at the front, who noticed this, tried to help him. But seemingly sensing the danger ahead and realising the need to stop the bus at once, Rahman hit the bus against a side wall and stopped it. He instantly collapsed on the steering wheel.
When he was taken to the nearby hospital, he was declared brought dead.
Battling to stay alive, Abdul Rahman’s presence of mind, timely action and sense of duty even moments before death caught up with him, prevented the bus from falling into a deep gorge on the winding road, police sources said.
