Paul Bass Photo
The light was about to turn green on Elm Street at College minutes before 10 a.m. Monday when Carmen noticed a driver seemingly asleep in the silver Volvo in the next lane.
So Carmen (she declined to give her last name) hopped out of her empty First Student mini-bus. She rapped on the Volvo window. The driver stirred. She hopped back into her bus.
She then watched the man steer the Volvo through the intersection. She followed.
“I thought he was going to park the car,” she said later.
Instead, she said, she saw him plow into into a Kia Sorento and a Nissan Altima parked in front of Hendrie Hall across from the Green.
Fortunately, no one was inside the two parked cars at the time.
Firefighters and an ambulance crew arrived. The Volvo driver was awake and spoke with them. They couldn’t open his smashed driver-side door. They removed him from the passenger side instead and transported him to the hospital to be checked out. Fire Lt. Patrick Grant said the driver seemed OK, but the crew wanted to make sure.
Meanwhile, Carmen and other witnesses told police and firefighters what they saw and heard.
And the work week got underway. With a photo op for passing cellphone-wielders.
Wow! Good thinking by the bus driver to notice the sleeping driver. Sounds like this could have been much worse. Shout out to Lt. Grant and crew for their work!