Article: Man crushed by Brisbane City Council bus at Cultural Centre

[ozbob]

From the Courier Mail click here!

Man crushed by Brisbane City Council bus at Cultural Centre

Man crushed by Brisbane City Council bus at Cultural Centre
Article from: The Courier-Mail

David Earley

May 11, 2009 05:55am

A MAN was fighting for his life in hospital last night after he was crushed under a Brisbane City Council bus near the Cultural Centre bus station, one of Brisbane's most dangerous intersections for pedestrians.
The express Browns Plains BUZ 140 was travelling through the intersection of Melbourne and Grey streets at South Brisbane about 5.30pm when it struck a man in his 30s, dragging him under the wheels.

A police media statement said "investigations indicate the man stepped from the centre of the roadway into the path of the bus".

A spokeswoman for the Department of Emergency Services said fire and ambulance crews had to lift the bus off of the man.

"There was a male patient trapped under the front wheels of a bus,'' the spokeswoman said.

"Multiple fire crews at the scene used airbags and hydraulic cutting equipment to free him."

The man was rushed to the Princess Alexandra hospital with serious head injuries and in a critical condition.

The bus driver and passengers were not injured, but at least one passenger on the Browns Plains express bus stepped and helped the injured man, providing essential first aid to try and limit his blood loss before emergency services arrived at the scene.

Hundreds of buses leave and enter Brisbane's CBD via the Cultural Centre bus station every day and Brisbane City Council has come under fire before following the deaths of other pedestrians at the same intersection.

The intersection is notorious for pedestrians, cars and bus drivers all taking their chances against red lights, and in November 2006 a man was killed when he was hit by a bus while standing on the median strip.

Earlier that year a cyclist died after being swept under the back wheels of a Brisbane City Council bus next to the Queensland Museum.