Forty-three-year-old Diane Getfield Martin, a female bus driver, is being hailed a hero today after she managed to avert a potential major disaster in Half-Way Tree yesterday.

Driving a bus owned by the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) that got out of control, Martin crashed the runaway vehicle into a wall at Park Plaza along Constant Spring Road less than 100 metres from the JUTC depot. Two persons were reportedly injured, and a car smashed, as the bus ploughed across the roadway, through a guard rail and stone wall, before slamming into the Park Plaza building a few metres to the left of a Mother's fast-food outlet.

"It seemed to have been a brake problem," said JUTC spokesman Reginald Allen. "She followed her training and advised the passengers to get down and found a good place to bank the bus. She put herself at greater risk to protect the passengers."

Allen said Martin, who has been a JUTC driver for three years, is to be commended by the bus company for her efforts.

The incident began to unfold shortly before 9 a.m. when the bus, in the extreme right lane, was heading along Constant Spring Road in the direction of the HWT terminus. As the bus approached the vicinity of the Pavilion Mall, it seemed to speed up, eyewitnesses said, and hit some railings protecting the sidewalk in front of the mall.

It rushed past the mall and veered towards the Total service station that was now in its path. "I was standing right here (inside the food mart) when I saw the bus hit a woman and break her leg, and then swerve away and crossed the road," said an attendant at the station. He added that he was preparing to run, because it seemed as if the bus was heading into the service station. Several gas pumps were in its path.

By this time, Martin was standing and gripping the steering wheel tightly, trying to regain control of the white behemoth that was careening out of control. She managed to force the bus away from the gas station and, as it veered across three lanes, it hit a Toyota Corona spinning it around and then lurched towards the Park Plaza wall, tearing away a portion of a stone column at the exit gate.

A Yummy bakery delivery truck, being driven by a man who identified himself as Errol, was just backing out when the bus rumbled through. It missed the delivery truck by mere centimetres before colliding with the concrete wall, breaking away pieces of it.

"I think it lick me," Errol said, the relief evident in his tired-looking eyes.

People said they could hear Martin screaming as the bus rushed towards the wall. An eyewitness, Wayne, who said he was among several persons who helped her from behind the wheel, relayed that she complained of pains to her chest and foot. Allen said from his reports she was also bleeding. She was taken to hospital but has since been released and is home on medication.

With the front of the bus crumpled against the wall and the Corona with its trunk crushed a few metres away, a large crowd converged to witness the drama.

Allen said that any compensation for damages would be made after a team of investigators submitted their findings to the JUTC legal department. He did not give a timeline for the process.

As the wrecked bus was being hauled away to the examination depot, where experts are going to try to determine what caused the mechanical failures that led to the accident, a pedestrian who had witnessed it all, started to curse loudly. He said some 'long-sleeved' JUTC employees were claiming that Martin was not skilled enough, which was why she crashed. This ticked him off, he said, because based on what he saw she was both very skilled and very brave. "If she neva do what she do, the bus woulda run inna the gas station and the whole a Half-Way Tree would a blow up," he said.