Driver speaks after bus goes up in flames on West Gate Bridge
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Navdeep Singh was driving his regular route over the West Gate Bridge on Monday night when he checked his mirrors and realised his bus was on fire.
“It was really scary. It was really big,” Singh told Nine News.
Passing drivers honked their horns as smoke entered the cabin of the diesel bus and three passengers aboard the bus started panicking. Singh was forced to quickly pull over and stop on the major Melbourne thoroughfare about 6pm.
“[I] let the passengers out, [then] I was out. It was very quick,” he said.
Nilesh Raichandani was a passenger on the bus and ran for the door when the fire started near the rear of the vehicle.
“I was trying to break the door. The door was not breaking. And the fire was like expanding a lot. Luckily, the driver was able to open the front door, so he was amazing,” Raichandani said.
Navdeep Singh, the driver of a bus that burst into flames on the West Gate Bridge on Monday evening.Credit: Nine News
The dramatic blaze caused major traffic delays and footage of the bus engulfed in flames was widely shared on social media, but emergency services confirmed no one was injured in the incident, and it was not being treated as suspicious.
However, the bus was left a burnt-out wreck and Singh said he would take his time in returning to work.
“Last night it was hard for me to sleep as well,” he said. “[I’m] still going through [it]. Still getting better.”
Raichandani said he struggled to comprehend what was happening as the fire quickly spread.
The burnt out remains of a public bus that burst into flames on the West Gate Bridge on Monday evening.Credit: Nine News
“I was like completely numb. Not sure what was happening. But I was focusing on me and other passengers … So, I was trying my best,” he said.
Traffic became backed up for about eight kilometres from the bridge all the way to the Domain Tunnel after Department of Transport officials closed outbound lanes when the blaze occurred.
The department had reopened two outbound lanes by 6.50pm on Monday.
A spokeswoman for Fire Rescue Victoria said on Monday the fire was first reported at 5.54pm, and when five crews of firefighters arrived eight minutes later, it was “fully alight”.
The blaze was extinguished by 6.20pm, but a cause has not yet been determined, the spokeswoman said.
With Ashleigh McMillan
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