The driver of a Cincinnati Metro bus narrowly escaped with her life the other day following a stunning accident that could have resulted in multiple fatalities had passengers been on board.
Surveillance video has just been released showing the chain of events that took place during the accident, which occurred last April. In the accident, the Metro bus was travelling down Gilbert Avenue when the driver of a passenger vehicle that was turning off of Chapel Street rammed into its side. The force of the impact made the larger vehicle cross over the dividing line in the roadway. The bus driver was able to avert missing another vehicle that was headed towards her on the opposite side of the road, but then struck a sign before veering towards a building, where it struck an overhead door. This impact was not enough to stop the bus. It continued down Gilbert, dragging debris behind it. It missed additional vehicles before veering across Lincoln Avenue and finally crashing into a home. The bus driver was injured and required hospitalization.
A witness to the scene, Ernest Jenkins, said that he thought that the end result was going to be much worse than it actually was. “The driver lost control of the vehicle, hit one building, ricocheted off, then hit another building across the intersection,” he said. “When she tore off and hit that, I thought she was a goner.”
The driver, whose name has not been released, was reportedly on her way back to the bus terminal to return the bus after the end of her shift. There were no passengers left on the bus. The driver suffered a broken leg and has not yet been able to return to work.
Though the Metro bus driver was not determined to be at fault in the accident, the incident has raised important questions about Cincinnati Metro Bus safety policies, which do not currently require bus drivers to wear safety belts. In this case, the driver of the bus was not strapped in, and police have indicated that her injuries might have been less severe had she been wearing one. The surveillance video from the bus shows that though she tried to hold on, she was thrown to the floor.
In a statement released by Sallie Hilvers of Metro, the organization stated, “Our drivers are not required to wear seatbelts and we have never forced them to do that, but we strongly encourage it. We are going back now and taking a look at the policy to see if we ought to be revising it.”