Depending on who you believe, professional truck drivers
played a role in saving the lives of bus passengers caught in a nightmare
situation earlier this week on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
The driver of a Megabus suffered a medical emergency on
Monday during a trip between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The bus began
swerving from side-to-side around 6 p.m. near the Bedford exit, leading to some
very tense moments for all involved.
A passenger named Stefon Braxton later told a TV news reporter
that two truck drivers were just as much to thank for the outcome as the
quick-thinking pastor who jumped behind the wheel to steer the bus to safety.
“These two guys really saved our lives. After we got off to
the side, they just drove off. So I just wanted to let them know we thank you,”
Braxton told WPXI in this news
video.
Braxton said the trucks on either side of the bus kept it
from leaving the roadway.
“It would hit and bounce back a little bit,” Braxton said in
the news clip. “They kept us from swaying more. When you look out the window
the truck was right there. This is how close they were to us.”
But the owners of the bus say no, no, no … that the bus
never made contact with the trucks.
“Though some claims have been made that two trucks were
involved in the incident, a review of interior and exterior video shows that
the Megabus made no contact with a semi,” the company stated. “There is also no
physical evidence of contact on the exterior of the bus.”
To this point, Megabus officials have not released the video
they say proves their version.
Megabus also denies reports that the bus driver lost
consciousness. The company asserts that the driver never passed out and kept
her hands on the wheel. The driver had simply forgotten to take her
blood-pressure medication according to reports.
Regardless of whose side you take, no one disputes the
heroism displayed by the young pastor, James Grantz of Pittsburgh. And whether
truck drivers played a role or not, some might say the pastor’s hands weren’t
the only ones guiding the bus to safety that day.
