Driver Carried Babies To Safety

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30960, 17 January 1966, Page 1

Driver Carried Babies To Safety

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, January 16. The driver of the bus which crashed near Rotorua on Saturday said today that the accident occurred when he touched his brakes as he came to a bend in the road. He is Allan Bernard Tretheway, of Auckland.

The bus skidded on the wet road and, in spite of Mr Tretheway’s efforts to keep control, plummeted over the bank. “Once we were over I realised the only thing I could do was to drive her straight down the bank,” he said. “About half-way down we hit a stump or something and the bus rolled about twice before it came to rest.

“I was draped around the steering wheel. All the windows were smashed.

“I jumped out of the bus and went to help the others." Several passengers passed babies out of the broken win-

dows to Mr Tretheway, who carried them to safety. “Passing motorists were very good,” he said. “One woman, a registered nurse, was following behind us and was on the scene almost immediately tending the injured. Her husband telephoned for the ambulance and police. “Whoever she was she did a great job,” he said. “One girl had her arm out the window and the full weight of the bus on top of it,” he said.