Terrified Passengers Stop Runaway Tram After Driver Reportedly Passes Out
Passengers on a tram in Germany forced their way into the cab after they couldn’t get the emergency brake to work.
They were able to stop the speeding vehicle after the driver passed out.
Police in Bonn said several passengers called the emergency line shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday.
According to the report, they couldn’t get the driver to respond and that the tram had skipped several stops.
“We feared for our lives. We couldn’t do anything,” Manfred Daas, who was one of the passengers, told his local newspaper.
Getting instructions on the phone from officials, two male passengers smashed a window of the driver’s cab.
Meanwhile, the transportation company, SWB, was on the phone with a female passenger and helped instruct the passengers on how to stop the tram.
The 47-year-old driver was taken to a hospital, which released him on Monday.
It wasn’t immediately clear why he passed out.
The two male passengers that broke the window suffered minor injuries on their hands.
The city transport authority said the emergency brake handle doesn’t in itself stop the tram but sends a signal to the driver.
He decides whether to stop the vehicle, but in this case, he obviously couldn’t.
SWB said that breaking the glass to get through the door was a quicker solution than shutting off electricity to the tram.
The passengers are being hailed as heroes for their actions.
“They did exactly the right thing in a dangerous situation and likely saved lives,” Bonn mayor Ashok Sridharan said.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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