‘I got my hand on the steering wheel, the other trying to get the driver back to life’: Passenger stops King County bus after driver collapses

A King County bus driver suffered a medical emergency and lost consciousness while driving through Seattle, causing the bus to collide with seven vehicles across five blocks before passenger Ernie Makinson brought it to a stop.

Makinson joined “The John Curley Show” to share how the incident unfolded and said King County Metro has refused to help him replace his glasses, even after his face went through the windshield, he suffered a serious back injury, and his backpack was stolen.

Makinson was sitting in the back of the bus, headed to the senior center to have lunch, when the bus suddenly hit a car. At first, he thought other passengers were helping the driver, but he found out the situation was actually escalating.

“When he hit the first car, I stood up, and there were a lot of women up front, and I thought they were, because they were around the driver, I thought they were dealing with it,” he said. “And there was a guy there. I thought he was dealing with it, but then, when he kept hitting vehicles, someone yelled out, ‘Hey, he’s not stopping!’ So I ran up and pushed my way in past everybody.”

KIRO host John Curley chimed in, “Wait, you’re in the back of the bus. There’s a bunch of people already there, next to the guy. No one was doing anything?”

“No, they weren’t doing anything,” Makinson replied. “Just yelling at him. He wasn’t responding. He was gone, dude. So I put my finger in his eye, and he didn’t blink. So I start pounding on his chest.”

As Makinson was trying to resuscitate the driver, he said he was also trying to drive the bus. And once the bus finally stopped, the driver, who appeared to be near death, came back to life.

“At the same time, I’m trying to drive. I got my hand on the steering wheel, on the other hand, trying to get this guy back to life,” Makinson said. “So I’m pounding on his chest. And he didn’t respond. So I got in between the driver and the steering column.”

“And then when I hit the brake, while he got his foot off the gas pedal, I hit the brakes, and my face went through the window, and my glasses got broken,” he continued. “And so then I steered it to the curb, and I threw the air brakes on. I unbuckled him and tossed him to the ground, and that’s when he raised up off the ground and took a deep breath. He came back.”

King County Metro refuses to cover broken glasses

Makinson, who is 64 years old, injured his arm and his spine and now has to use a walker. He also said he lost his job because of the crash.

“This is a real kick in the gut,” he said.

On top of all of that, a thief stole money from Makinson’s backpack amid the chaos.

“My backpack was in the back of the bus. Some dude darted on the bus — when I’m up front, and I’m steering to the curb — jumped in, and took money and my key bank card out of my backpack,” he said.

When Makinson asked for a glasses replacement, King County Metro told him it’s not liable for his glasses breaking when they went through the windshield and hung up on him. Curley told Makinson that the show is going to do what it can to help him out.

“We’re gonna be like Jesse Jones, we’re gonna get to the bottom of this,” Curley said.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to John Curley weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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