Drama in Estonia: a bus passenger saves 30 lives

Lily Tarakanova usually drives a car from her village to Tartu, but fatefully it was one of the few times a year when she had to collect her car in the city.

So this time Lily went on the road by the company “Go Bus”. Near Tartu, she heard a screaming girlfriend, Marika, who was sitting behind the driver so she could look at the road during the trip. The driver had become ill, he had lost consciousness, he had leaned against the steering wheel, but the bus had already crossed an elevated pedestrian crossing and was moving towards five or six cars in the opposite lane.

Lily jumped to her feet from the last row and ran to the driver. The situation was very complicated because the driver could not be moved, his foot still depressed the accelerator pedal.

Lily applied the brake with one hand, held the steering wheel with the other, while the bus ran onto the curb and passed the red traffic light. There was an uphill ride, but I couldn’t brake fast because there were trucks in the back. For about 300 to 400 meters, Lily ruled the pedals and corners on all fours while watching the road. She managed to stop at the cemetery, fortunately, with live passengers.

The companions were mostly seniors, who were just sitting in a slight shock. The rushes are called and the driver’s life is saved. “I don’t want to think about what would have happened if Lily had taken the next bus,” says her friend Marika.

“I’m not a heroine. I act instinctively, there was simply no time for reflection,” says Lily herself, who met Postimees at a fair near Tallinn, selling onions and other rural goods.

Andrei Mendla, a member of the board of Go Bus, would like to thank Lily: “She also saved the life of the driver of this bus, who would have suffered the most in a frontal collision.”