A quick thinking French tourist averted disaster Saturday when he jumped from his seat and applied the brake on the bus he was traveling on a split second before it would have plunged off a 100 meter cliff in the Tyrolean Alps with 21 passengers on board. 

The BBC reports the 65-year-old Frenchman was sitting close to the 76 year old driver when the driver became ill and collapsed at the wheel. He leapt to his feet as the bus crashed through a wooden guardrail and applied the brake just in the nick of time, leaving the buss cantilevered over a 328 foot drop.

As you can see from the pictures, this was incredibly close to being a horrible tragedy. A local police spokesman said We were a hair’s breadth from catastrophe,” adding it was “incredible luck” that the passenger’s lightening fast reflexes had managed to stop the bus before it rolled over the impending cliff. 

Four people were taken to hospital but there were no fatalities.   [images from www.unsertirol24.com]

Unofficial Networks Newsletter

Get the latest snow and mountain lifestyle news and entertainment delivered to your inbox.

Hidden
Newsletters
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.