BUS OUT OF CONTROL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22714, 29 October 1935, Page 10

BUS OUT OF CONTROL

AN ALARMING EXPERIENCE DRIVER'S REMARKABLE SKILL (Per United Press Association) AUCKLAND, October 28. The skill and presence of mind of a young man saved about 20 passengers from death or injury when a motor bus he was driving got out of control near the top of Wellesley street West about 7 o'clock to-night. After careering down the steep slope across the Queen street intersection at about 40 miles an hour and up Wellesley street East as far ae Spragg's garage, the bus stopped and commenced to run backward. The driver ewung the wheel over and the bus awerved, jumped the kerb, and came to rest against a building between two large shop windows. Only the cool action of the driver, Noel Mouritz, of New Lynn, in swerving across the road in front of an outward-bound tram car at the intersection of Queen and Wellesley streets averted a disastrous collision. The motor bus, a 30-seater belonging to the Auckland Bus Company, Ltd., was bound from Henderson to the city. A stop had been made in Hobson street near the top of Wellesley street West, and the bus was travelling down the hill toward Queen street when the driver found that neither the foot brake nor the hand brake would function. The bus was in third gear when it happened, Mr Mouritz said later: "We were travelling slowly down Wellesley street, and all of a sudden the bus just commenced to run free. Although the hand and foot brakes were both hard on, the speed increased, and there was too much way on to turn into Albert street. I told the passengers that the bus was out of control, and advised them to hang on. I kept my hand on the horn button and took to the tram lines above the safety zone. There was a tram coming up Queen street, but we got past. The driver must have seen us and stopped. Going round the front of the tram took us across the wrong side of the road. We were across the intersection in a flash and climbing Wellesley street East. The bus stopped near a service station, and I asked the people near the front to get out. There were 6till about 12 people inside. When she ran backward I brought the wheel hard round to the right and let the bus come back against a building." The accident is believed to have been caused by the back axle breaking and the foot brakes failing at the same time. The back of the bus struck between the windows of the premises of a plumber and an antique shop, and caused little or no damage to the buildings. A tribute to the courage of the passengers was paid by Mr Mouritz. "They were very good, and kept their heads when I told them the bus was out of control," he said.