Crushed by his own bus

MTA DRIVER was crushed by his own 20-ton bus and critically injured Tuesday as he tried to stop it from rolling backward into a Queens cemetery, authorities said.

But the injuries Kaleb Olivier suffered outside All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village could have been much worse if it wasn’t for quick-thinking colleague Anibal Rivera, who managed to put on the emergency brake.

“Rivera may have saved his life,” said J.P. Patafio, vice president of bus operators for Transport Workers Union Local 100. “Nobody else was around to see what had happened.”

Olivier, 44, had just finished his shuttle bus run to pick up commuters along the M line, which is under construction, when he parked and stepped away from his bus for a bathroom break on Metropolitan Ave. near 65th Place about 1:20 a.m.

As he walked away, his bus began rolling backward down Metropolitan Ave. Olivier, who has been driving buses for the MTA for nine years, tried to get the passenger-side doors open, only to get crushed between the bus and a pole it passed, authorities said.