Passengers stop bus from plunging off bridge

Passengers stopped a bus from plunging nearly 200 feet off a Florida bridge after the driver collapsed, apparently from a heart attack.

The bus was near the top of the Sunshine Skyway bridge in St Petersburg afternoon when Thomas Grove, 61, fell out of his seat.

It slammed into the three foot concrete wall which blocks vehicles from tumbling into Tampa Bay. Three of the five passengers jumped out of their seats and ran toward the front.

“Grab the wheel!” 70-year-old Kenneth McAllister recalled shouting to his wife, Mary, and another woman.

The women held the steering wheel until McAllister could slide into the driver’s seat. He struggled to keep the bus in its lane and hit the brake. It stopped just before the highest part of the bridge.

The passengers then spent another 10 minutes in the bus because they didn’t know how to open the door.

Two nurses driving by stopped to help, performing CPR on the driver who later died in hospital

“It happened so fast,” Mr McAllister said. “We all felt so lucky to be alive.”