Strangers try to help after double-decker bus fall
Woman had been trying to pick up a lost wallet to give to the driver
An elderly woman who fell down the stairwell of a double-decker bus was comforted by strangers as she lay unconscious on the floor. The 74-year-old had been trying to turn back down the stairwell to pick up a lost wallet to hand to the bus driver when she fell.
Teacher Kelly Clark was on the bus with her three young daughters at the Hibiscus Coast Station and Park & Ride.
“We all heard the noise, it was such a huge noise,” Clark said.
“We hadn’t even really moved . . . we hadn’t moved out of the bus stop.”
Clark, alongside two other young women, put the 74-year-old into the recovery position.
“She was never conscious,” she said. “She had a massive lump on the front of her head. I reckon she must have hit her head.”
The group had all tried as much as they could to help, including checking for any kind of medical alerts, she said. “All your first-aid training goes through your head.”
As a teacher, Clark underwent St John first-aid training every two years, she said.
“I went through her wallet and we found a phone number and called it — it was actually her son.” A man’s
HFor a video go to nzherald.co.nz Kelly Clark tried to help the woman who fell on a double decker bus.
wallet was also on the ground beside her — “I thought this can’t be her wallet”.
“I was looking around her, and we found her sunglasses too, they were sitting on the railing of the stairs. “It was a freak accident I suppose.” It took about 30 minutes for the ambulance to arrive, at which point the 74-year-old’s son also arrived, Clark said.
“The bus driver looked quite
worried . . . he just seemed so inexperienced to be in a situation like that, which is what concerned me.”
Clark was saddened to hear of the woman’s death.
Acting Senior Sergeant Nick Herd, Waitemata Police, said the elderly woman died in Auckland Hospital that evening.
The 74-year-old was on the bus about 10.30am on Friday when she noticed that a wallet had been left
behind by a previous passenger and she had gone downstairs to give it to the driver, he said. “It is at this time that she has fallen. The matter has been referred to both the Coroner and WorkSafe NZ,” he said.
An AT spokesperson said that bus was no longer operating so police could conduct their investigation. “But no, other than that doubledecker services are running the same as usual.”