Police have thanked a truck driver that averted a major disaster when a bus u-turned and drove the wrong way over the Auckland Harbour Bridge yesterday.
At around 1pm Monday, Police were called to reports of a bus travelling north in the southbound lanes over the Harbour Bridge.
Minutes earlier the passenger bus had been travelling south in lane one(outside lane closest to Sky Tower). It had travelled over the bridge towards Auckland city and had taken the Shelly Beach off-ramp. It came to a stop at the Shelly Beach off-ramp and blocked traffic. The vehicle then attempted to do a U-turn.
Cars travelling in lanes two and three saw this happen, and came to a stop.
The bus then travelled up the Harbour Bridge northbound, back towards Takapuna, in the lanes reserved for traffic heading south.
A truck in lane three stopped the bus and other cars also pulled over to assist.
A Police Motorways Patrol officer reversed the bus back down the bridge.
The bus driver has been taken to hospital for medical checks.
“We’ll be speaking with the driver and doing further investigation,’ says Inspector Mark Fergus, Waitemata Road Policing manager.
“At this stage it appears this was caused by a medical event,” Fergus says. “We’re relieved that no-one was injured and we’d especially like to thank the driver of the truck and other motorists who assisted at the scene”
