A Greyhound bus driver suffered a seizure and lost control of the vehicle Thursday night, but an off-duty driver grabbed the wheel and steered it down a ravine, averting disaster, officials said.
Eight people were reported slightly injured.
The unidentified driver suffered what was apparently a heart attack while driving east on Int. Hwy. 10 about 20 miles southeast of Baton Rouge near Gramercy, police said.
”I noticed we were going down, and everybody started screaming,” said Raphael Parker, one of 43 passengers on the bus.
An unidentified off-duty driver, who noticed the bus driver was having trouble, ”grabbed the wheel of the bus, steered the bus to the right off the interstate, and the bus continued down the ravine, down into the woods and hit a couple of trees,” said state trooper Lt. Ray Farris.
Five of the eight people treated at hospitals were kept overnight for observation, including the stricken driver.
