It Happened To Me | Eleanor Bentall

Caught By A Bus

After journalism school in Wellington in New Zealand, I decided I wanted to do my OE (overseas experience) before settling down to a job on a newspaper. A friend of mine had worked as a bus driver and said it was great fun and well paid.

I could save up some money quickly, go travelling for a year and then return to New Zealand to look for a job in journalism. I was 20 and just old enough to be a bus driver, so I applied.

The training was thorough, learning how to drive both diesel and trolley buses. However, at that age I was a night owl, happily staying up till the early hours and then finding getting up in the morning almost impossible. Some vital information during the training must have passed me by.

A few weeks after passing my test, I landed the early shift, taking out the first bus in the morning.

This was a big responsibility as that route picked up lots of workers who would in turn be the first at their places of work, relied on to open up offices or businesses. A taxi would pick me up at 4.00am to take out the first bus at 4.45am.

One morning, however, the taxi driver couldn’t rouse me and I slept in till 4.30am. I woke in a panic and rode my motorcycle down to the bus depot.

Followed by dark looks from my supervisor, I grabbed my cashbox and ran across the depot to my bus. In my haste I slipped and spilled all the coins over the floor. After gathering them up I jumped on the bus and started it.

I pushed the buttons to shut both front and rear doors. For some reason they didn’t work, but I decided to set off regardless. I picked people up at bus stops, all perplexed as to why I didn’t know how to shut the doors and angry at the wind and rain blowing in.

After 20 minutes I got to the terminus at Wellington Railway Station, and determined to sort out what was going on with the doors.

There was a lever on the outside and one on the inside of the doors, as well as the control by the driver’s seat. I realised that I must have them configured in the wrong way. I turned the lever inside the bus and then tried the driver’s control. Still they didn’t close.

I then leaned out and turned the lever on the outside of the bus and to my alarm, before I could get my head back in, the bus doors closed on my neck.

I was now unable to reach the inside or outside lever, or the driver’s control. The doors were pushing hard against my neck and I realised I was stuck and actually in danger of suffocating.

With my bright red face sticking out of the bright red bus I called, ‘Help!’

Luckily for me, I was seen by a passing bus driver who rushed over and prised open the doors with brute force, releasing one very embarrassed and bruised driver.